More Cork working families falling into food poverty

MORE working families in Cork have fallen into food poverty during the past year due to the increase in mortgage interest rates and the cost of living, the area president for St Vincent de Paul has said.

Kate Durrant was speaking as the preparations to deliver approximately 2,000 food boxes containing essential Christmas items such as the festival meats in a northside warehouse were continuing this week.

Ms Durrant said food poverty is a constant problem in Cork city and county.

“Those who suffer most financially in society are fairly recession proof because there’s nothing left to lose, they’re living on the bare minimum.

“They’re possibly not impacted by the vagaries that might put somebody who we’d think is doing ok into the net of needing help as well.

“It’s been a hard year for people with the interest rates going up and up all the time and the cost of living, which has grown at a disproportionate rate, and fuel costs.

“Families last year that might have been able to keep their head above water are finding it increasingly difficult to do so.” 

Ms Durrant said there was no doubt that more working families were falling into this category of food poverty as well.

“This year we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of families looking for help due to the increased cost of living, the rise in interest rates and the fuel costs – they’ve made a big, big difference to families that were ‘doing ok’, on the face of it anyway.” Volunteers from sporting and community organisations in Cork are busy packing the boxes which will be delivered in the fortnight before Christmas to ensure families will be able to relax as much as possible before the festive season, knowing they have the essential items in the house.

“This is more than 2,000 families who reach out to us through St Vincent de Paul, we will deliver to them in the weeks preceding Christmas a box of essential foodstuffs to make Christmas happen.

“There will be the Christmas meats in there, there will be meat for Christmas Eve and Stephen’s Day as well, a box of food that will enable a family to close the door on Christmas Eve and just for those few days, be able to pretend that everything is ok. There will be milk there for the tea and coffee, there will be sugar there for the tea.

“If somebody calls there will be biscuits, there will be festive things for the children, there will be cake, your meats, your vegetables, your eggs, all you need as a family to have a dignified Christmas, which is the least anybody deserves.” The food which is currently stacked in the warehouse comes from FoodCloud, a group which SVP is partnered with, and FEAD (The Fund for European Aid for the the Most Deprived) and, as Ms Durrant describes, ‘the incredible kindness and generosity of the people of Cork’.

FoodCloud and FEAD provide a quarterly delivery of non-perishable high nutritional value food, throughout the year. During the year, SVP deliver around 200 food boxes per week to families in Cork city and county.

On a weekly basis, SVP in Cork is staffed by a manager, Annette Butler, and a team which comes via the Community Employment Scheme, who Ms Durrant described as ‘superb’. 

“We’re very lucky with the people in our warehouse".

“At Christmas we get a huge amount of help from the community, we get groups coming in wanting to help pack the food boxes because, obviously, that’s a mammoth undertaking to prepare 2,000 food boxes to ensure they’re absolutely perfect.

“Nothing goes out of our warehouse unless we’re sure that there’s everything in it that a family’s going to need.

“So at Christmas we have people coming in from community and sporting organisations, because at this time of the year everybody wants to play their part making sure that Christmas happens for everyone in the community, not just for those of us who are lucky enough to be able to afford it.” 

The distribution of the food boxes starts around two weeks before Christmas. “The reason we start early is because it’s very difficult to relax unless people can be sure Christmas is happening,” she said.

“As soon as things arrive, people can put them away and then start to relax and enjoy it.

“We try to take all the worry out of Christmas.

“The SVP Christmas campaign this year is ‘the wonder of Christmas’ which is ‘I wonder will we have the money, I wonder can we pay the bills’.

“To make the ‘wonder of Christmas’ happen, we have to take the ‘I wonder’ out of it.” 

The charity helps people in many different ways on top of providing food boxes and these include sitting down with families and going through bills to advise on managing finances or education, to help people achieve qualifications which can help them get out of a poverty trap.

Ms Durrant said that was heartbreaking to see people struggle. 

“I cannot describe the satisfaction of being able to ease that load a little, knowing that children are going to bed with full stomachs and that breakfast will be there for them when they wake up.

"As people struggle with the ever increasing cost of living it's important that they know that, in addition to giving practical help, SVP also brings hope and the knowledge that whatever someone is going through they are not going through it on their own.

“We are there to walk that road with them.” 

If you need help, or would like to donate to help others, you can contact SVP Cork on 021-4270444 or online at www.svp.ie.