More than 3,000 people, including mothers with babies and schoolchildren, queued from just after 4am in Dublin city centre on Wednesday for tickets entitling them to Christmas food vouchers.
The queue at the Capuchin day centre went down Bow Street, around the corner and on to Nicholas Avenue. The centre opened just after 7am, providing weekly food parcels along with the annual Christmas vouchers.
Others kept arriving through the morning ensuring the queue did not abate. It swelled several times, with local gardaí stewarding and ensuring it kept moving.
The centre provides food parcels every Wednesday, from about 7.30am, to anyone who turns up. More than 1,500 hot meals – breakfast and lunch – are provided every weekday at the centre, except on Wednesday mornings when the breakfast is takeaway to facilitate food parcels being packed inside.
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Among those who collected a parcel and a ticket for the Christmas vouchers which will be distributed next Wednesday was a thin, older woman. Speaking just after 7am she said she was rearing two of her eight grandchildren as her daughter “isn’t well”. She comes most weeks for a food-parcel. “It’s a great help. It helps with the food. Everything is gone sky high,” she said.
A bearded man (66) said he comes to the centre “the odd time”. He sleeps “on the streets” having become homeless because he is “on the drink”. He was working on a community employment scheme until recently. “But when you get to 66 they let you go. If this place wasn’t there we’d be all gone,” he said.
In the earlier stages of the morning many children with schoolbags queued with their parents. At about 7.35am several mothers appeared together, pushing buggies and with several primary school-age children wearing puffer coats over school uniforms. They left in good spirits walking towards Hammond Lane.
Inside about 15 volunteers packed the weekly parcels in distinctive blue plastic bags. Maria Gallagher explained the production line.
“I start by putting in the milk and bread. Then the bag is picked up by another volunteer and they add in more and it’s passed on. We have tea, butter, tins of beans, sugar, cheese slices, ham slices, cooked chicken. The real staples.”
In the kitchen, staff packed hundreds of greaseproof paper bags with two sausages each. These, along with buttered sliced bread and cups of vegetable soup made in vats on the premises, are offered for breakfast.
“Normally we do about 1,000 breakfasts, maybe more, but we double it this morning because there are so many coming for the Christmas tickets,” said Evelyn Farrell, who has worked at the centre for 20 years. “We buy the sausages and we make the soup. It has carrots, potatoes, onions. It’s all fresh. It has to be okay for vegetarians and for Halal.”
Asked about changes in her two decades volunteering, she said: “Big time – more people, more different nationalities, an awful lot of homeless. An awful lot of children homeless. A lot of drug addicts and alcoholics. We do our best. We bring them in and have hot food for them, try to keep them up.
“They come in and they snap at you, they do. But we know as soon as they sit down and get something to eat and warmed up they’re back up to the counter to apologise. We are so used it now,” she said.
Carmel O’Reilly has worked in the centre for 36 years. “I’ve seen this place grow from about 50 people coming in when I started ... They were elderly men from the Morning Star hostel. They used to sit in because they had nowhere else to go at the time. It has grown immensely.
“It’s very sad and it’s not just homeless people. It’s people trying to pay mortgages and rents. We have an awful lot of students coming in because their rents are so high. The housing crisis is causing a lot of it. We have people coming in here asking us if we know anywhere they could live. All we can do is feed them and keep them warm.”
Back outside Richard Murphy (59) was leaving in his mobility scooter. “Me heart is blocked and I have COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]. I’m living in Focus Ireland accommodation and I come here every week,” he said.
“It’s very important to me. It’s very important to a lot of people. It’s not getting any easier for them. The queues are getting longer every week. I wouldn’t be able to cope without it.
“I try to look after my family. I have six kids. They have kids and they find it hard to manage. Any help I can, I do for them.”
He worked in his youth in security. “I never thought I’d be coming for food parcels. It’s embarrassing to be honest but it has to done.”
Asked how he will spend Christmas, Mr Murphy said: “I’ll stay with one of my daughters because I love being there when the grandkids open their presents.”
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