Alexandra Keery speaks to the founders of a food kitchen service in Co. Carlow
Started in 2013 by Fr John Dunphy, St Clare’s Hospitality Food Kitchen was founded to combat the ongoing needs of families in the Carlow, Graiguecullen and Killsehin areas. “A group of us were reflecting one day and it came to our attention that more and more were coming to my door looking for food and were struggling… there were stories of teachers literally giving their own lunches to some of the children who were hungry,” Fr Dunphy explains.
The kitchen is based on Br Kevin Crowley’s Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin. Active since 1974, the centre distributes food parcels and provides other means of support including educational and emotional. Presently the centre distributes 1,200 parcels a week and provides nearly 600 meals, six days a week.
Inspired by this model, St Clare’s food kitchen aims to provide physical, medical, developmental and social aid for those in need. Physically they provide meals, medically they provide services including chiropody and optical exams, developmentally they provide advice and information to help people improve their ongoing health, and socially they provide an opportunity to meet others within the community.
Main service
However, the main service of the kitchen is their food parcels. “We initially thought we’d give out soup and sandwiches to people, but then we saw Br Kevin’s food centre in Dublin and the huge undertaking, so we decided to start giving out food parcels,” Fr Dunphy said.
The parcels are put together on Tuesdays and distributed on Wednesdays, and contain nine basic food items. Initially when the centre was starting out 20-30 food parcels were distributed a week, now there are around 120-130.
The only requirement for receiving a parcel is that you must be over 18 years of age. Food is donated to the kitchen either through barrels that are set up in the churches and parish centre, or through the donation of money that is used by the parish to purchase the food items. After accessing what has been donated to the barrels, the parish knows what they need each week and they buy the appropriate items.
A sense of community and bringing people together is important to the kitchen. They want to give others a place to socialise and share experiences while simultaneously making them a part of a supportive community. The centre takes pride in connecting with schools, colleges, and other community groups by providing opportunities to gain experience by volunteering to work in the different areas.
“The whole venture has brought out the goodness in people. We have kept ahead of ourselves in food and money, and we haven’t yet gone behind. We’ve had enough each week to keep us going,” Fr Dunphy said. He stresses that this is all done through voluntary donations, and “the amount of volunteers is incredible”.
He offered a story of one inspirational man in particular. Phillip, a young man from Kilkenny, works nights but always manages to come out every Wednesday morning to spend two hours helping to give out the food parcels. Fr Dunphy is struck by his dedication to the cause, and he says there are many other people just like Phillip who do everything they can to help.
“There’s two sides to this. There is the generosity of people donating food and money, and the generosity of people who donate their time. Both are important,” he says.
Fr Dunphy states that in general there has been an increase in people seeking food parcels since the recession. “It’s certainly not just homeless who come, it’s people who have lost work or who have difficult family circumstances that have changed and they’re just struggling to pay bills, and this is just a small gesture to help them,” he said.
The kitchen doesn’t judge anyone who comes to its doors and Fr Dunphy doesn’t think that any of them are coming to abuse the system. “A lot of them are homeless, but a lot of them are families who are down on their luck. They come when they’re desperate,” he said.
Donations
While the kitchen is able to service a good number of those in need, there is still more they would like to accomplish. Currently they are looking to create an actual food kitchen from which they could serve hot meals six days a week. According to Fr Dunphy, a building has already been acquired but it would take a large scale donation to get the building up to code.
“Currently all donations are going toward the food parcels, but even if we had €100,000 we could go ahead to have our own properly equipped food kitchen.”
Fr Dunphy strongly encourages people to consider donating to this cause. St Clare’s Hospitality Food Kitchen is already doing an incredible amount to help the community, but they would like to be able to do even more.
For more information contact stclareshosp@eircom.net