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The shelves at this food bank are looking bare and they need your help

Crosscare are looking for food donations as demand increases ahead of Christmas.

Michelle Hennessy / TheJournal.ie Michelle Hennessy / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

THE SHELVES AT the Crosscare food bank on Dublin’s Portland Row are looking sparse.

Last year, the organisation, run by the Archdiocese of Dublin, distributed 750 tonnes of food. This year, staff expect this will stretch to 1,200 tonnes.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin launched an appeal yesterday asking people to donate any basic food items they can ahead of Christmas, when there will be a huge demand from struggling families. Crosscare had to set up four new food banks along the east coast in the last year to meet this demand.

Today, Martin said it was “not a happy thing” to have to appeal for the food but it is badly needed.

Crosscare’s Senior Manager for Food Services Michael McDonagh said an appeal last year raised enough food to last months, allowing the service to give out several thousand hampers that would make up a weekly shop for a family. However the increasing strain on the service this year has left it struggling to keep up.

A hot meal and some friendly faces

The food bank on Portland Row is based in the Community Café, which offers affordable meals to the community.

Michelle Hennessy / TheJournal.ie Michelle Hennessy / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

Archbishop Martin said places like this café give people a space where they are supported and where they can “keep an eye on one another to make sure no one drifts off in the wrong direction”.

At the café, we met Clive, who has been homeless for 15 years. He said his addiction to drugs and alcohol resulted in his becoming homeless. He is currently on methadone, determined to get clean.

Clive said he worked in construction for years during the boom, holding down a job even while he was homeless.

“I’ve worked all my life, I went every day,” he said. “It was hard, especially them winter mornings. I just want to get settled now.”

Kelly also visits the Community Café regularly as she said it is a good place to get together with her friends. She has been homeless, on and off, since she was 16.

She told TheJournal.ie she often has difficulty getting into hostels at night and is terrified to sleep on the streets.

“It’s twice a week you’d be put in a hostel and the rest of the week you might not,” she said.

A girl needs to be put in a hostel. I’m not using – I’m not on anything and there are people getting burned and everything in their sleeping bags. I’m not sleeping on the streets.

How you can help

Crosscare is asking all Dublin parishes to help collect food for the food bank over the first week of December. Parishioners will be able to bring food supplies to their local church at weekend Mass times on 6 and 7 December and Crosscare will collect and redistribute the food to those most in need.

Types of food urgently needed include pasta, rise, fruit juice, tea, coffee, soup, sugar, powdered milk, tinned meat and fish, tinned fruit and vegetables , packaged dessert, biscuits, and hygiene products.

Read: Homeless man found dead in doorway just metres from Leinster House>

Read: Fund for homeless people set up after Galway man dies alone in London>

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33 Comments
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    Mute Joe
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 7:36 AM

    €81k a week on lawyers and people are going hungry, shame on us.

    216
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    Mute Mary Dundee
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 7:41 AM

    4 euro for full irish is a bit pricey for someone who is homeless…

    123
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    Mute Conor Buggy
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 7:54 AM

    Better to spend 4 on a decent home made meal in a safe place with some decent people than to spend 4 on some crappy burger in a soulless McDs.

    Shelters and food banks and soup kitchens do amazing work that by rights should not be needed in this country. 81k per day on lawyers for IW! Can you imagine what 81k extra a year could do for a homeless charity. Let alone 2.5 million!

    151
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    Mute Leslie Skinner
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 7:38 AM

    Show it to the government,they think we are all loaded.

    110
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    Mute Cillan32
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 7:46 AM

    What a legacy to have … Shame on FF/FG/Lab … And they think SF and Independants will ruin this country !.. Anyone still considering voting for the axis of weasel should have a real hard look at themselfs .

    102
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    Mute Brendan Moore
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 7:56 AM

    Yeah because a known terrorist as Taoiseach is just a fantastic idea…

    104
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    Mute Jim Brady
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:14 AM

    I spent a week in Olso last year, and although Norway is very wealthy with progressive social welfare, they have a huge problem with homelessness. It’s a total head-wreck for the Norwegians who don’t understand how it could happen in such a socialist society.
    I’m not sure SF can magic this away

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    Mute David Murphey
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:21 AM

    Let’s be very clear about this.

    Housing for homeless people is the responsibility of the councils, not central government.

    Now, SF have the majority of seats on Dublin City Council. That means SF are in control of DCC.

    So far, SF have not used their position on DCC to do anything about homelessness, litter, Temple Bar, or just about anything else. ( has anyone noticed SF have been silent about the death of this poor unfortunate homeless man?)

    SF are great at shouting from the side lines but when it comes to actually doing something, they just can’t.

    Is this the kind of government we want? Vote for anyone you wish, but just remember, we get the government we vote for.

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    Mute Windom Earle
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:39 AM

    SF are too busy driving around in there BMWs,the Good Friday agreement was a great business move for them.

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    Mute Anne Marie Devlin
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:43 AM

    @David. You’ve hit the nail on the head. We have the government that was voted for, a government that promised an end to this kind of thing. What’s happened? the problems have got worse. Homelessness, social exclusion. A wedge has been created and driven between those who receive social welfare and those who don’t. Like many people, after the complete hames this government has made of everything, I’m willing to give something else a go.
    Re Norway, huge problems in Oslo. I read somewhere that it’s to do with the liberalisation of drugs.

    32
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    Mute Prince of Burren
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:49 AM

    I hope Ivor Callelly and Ned O Keeffe read this along with all their colleagues

    35
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    Mute Sam Bartell
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:53 AM

    And the rest of us, including the man who died on the street, have been left with the government people like you voted for

    16
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    Mute Fergal Kelly
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:59 AM

    David you’re wrong on several points but the main one I want to target is that the councils hands are completely tied by the funding from central government. Homelessness is NOT the domain of each city council, there’s a reason were meant to have a national programme to target it.

    25
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    Mute David Murphey
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 9:31 AM

    Sorry, Fergal, but that’s not correct.

    Homeless shelters are run by the Council (some are run by NGOs). Local Authority Housing is, as its name suggests, run by the local authority.

    The ” national strategy or programme” is nothing more than a PR stunt. We had one of those back in 2010. Final responsibility lies with the councils.

    Councils get funding from a variety of sources, including commercial rates, as well as central government. The councils decide where to spend money.

    By the way, this isn’t only about SF. The Fingal council is not controlled by SF, and Fingal has a serious homelessness problem too. I mentioned SF, because someone else here wrote “Shame on FF/FG/Lab”, which is correct, but the suggestion that SF will cure all ills needs to be challenged.

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    Mute Martin Hayes
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 10:29 AM

    Spurious argument Brendan Moore. De Valera was a known terrorist, Lemass was a known terrorist, we survived that relatively well.
    The people who have destroyed this country are lawyers and teachers, not a known terrorist among them.

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    Mute Brendan Moore
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 11:12 AM

    @Martin The difference is they embraced it. If he came out and admitted what everyone knows, he would have a lot more credibility. Instead, he lies and twists but I suspect most of the Shinner Support group on here are blind to that fact.

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    Mute Martin Hayes
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 11:43 AM

    @Brendan. Firstly and let’s get this clear, I am not part of any “Shinner support group”, far from it but I do believe in calling a spade a spade.
    SF is not recognised as a terrorist group and the British, Irish and US governments have all failed to prove that Adams was an IRA member. There will always be a question mark over him but 40 years of trying have failed to prove it so I’m prepared to leave it at that.
    The fact remains that ” known terrorists” have populated the Dail since formation of the state, terrorist sympathisers have reached nearly every high office Hardly a country in the world has not had former terrorists in their government, depending on whose perspective you view it from.
    From the British perspective, George Washington, Jomo Kenyatta, Ben Gurion were all terrorists but all went on to form stable democracies.

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    Mute Stephen Brady
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 12:34 PM

    David Central government funds councils. How much was that cut in the last 6years?

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    Mute Stephen Brady
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 12:36 PM

    David they were also meant to be funded by LPT and that was given over to install water metres.

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    Mute Brendan Moore
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 12:36 PM

    Failing to prove it doest mean it’s not true Martin !

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    Mute Martin Hayes
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 2:43 PM

    Brendan, that’s a nonsense comment, we can’t prove there’s a God but billions of people believe it to be true. We eventually just have to accept some things no matter how unpalatable they may be.

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    Mute Maxwell Risk
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:19 AM

    If this was properly organised by the government or the councils surely there could be some corporate partnership that would allow for companies to donate. M&S et al used to be able to donate frozen meals passed it’s shelf life, but still good, to charitable organisations but not any more. If all the charities were organised into a net across the city and country by a central body there might be better outreach. Still though enough is not being done.

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    Mute Fergal Kelly
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:55 AM

    Such logic, this my friend is why you child not succeed in Irish politics.

    38
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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 9:00 AM

    I would rather the government just take steps to ensure that none of this is necessary.

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 9:50 AM

    Isn’t there a new company called Foodcloud doing that?

    16
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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 9:11 AM

    Apparently things are improving. I guess if the government keeps repeating that enough people will believe them….

    32
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    Mute Anne Gyna
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 10:20 AM

    How do we donate food to a food bank? Like, all the things they need, rice, pasta etc etc…..we could fill a trolley with in Aldi/Lidl for €20. Which I’m sure many of us would do, given that the season of Xmas is here. But…..how to physically do this, I have no idea? Does anyone else know?

    9
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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 11:17 AM

    From the article

    Crosscare is asking all Dublin parishes to help collect food for the food bank over the first week of December. Parishioners will be able to bring food supplies to their local church at weekend Mass times on 6 and 7 December and Crosscare will collect and redistribute the food to those most in need.

    7
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    Mute Tara Doherty
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 2:49 PM

    What about for people who don’t go to mass or who work weekends like myself? How can I donate?

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    Mute Chris Kel
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 1:31 PM

    Food banks get very little goverment support and funding…their usually run by voluntary non profit organisations or the churches etc…..as for the goverment ha…..we need business men to sort our country not teachers etc…..food banks are a brillant cause but needs to be looked at on a higher scale…..

    3
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    Mute Cillan32
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 1:00 PM

    You would swear by some of the comments here that SF have been running the place …. You can’t blame SF on this David … Funding comes from Government and that funding has been slashed by FG and Lab !

    3
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    Mute Windom Earle
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    Dec 2nd 2014, 8:36 AM

    The thing is that they are Irish or Western looking. Typical double standards.

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    Mute Louise
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 3:12 AM

    I hate to be pedantic but it’s spelled rice, not rise. You are a professional journalist!

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