The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
THE Feed Clare foodbank at the Kincora building in Shannon Town Centre, is now only operating every second Friday.
Karen Cassidy has been involved in its operation for years, and she said the last few months have seen a huge jump in demand.
“Oh gosh, yeah. In the last two months I’d say we’ve had an increase of about one third. Last month I think we had 22 new applicants, which is a lot for a small town like Shannon.”
On an average week it provides support to around 50 families. “I suppose we have about 120 on our list altogether. Not all of them would come every week, some would come once a month or something like that. But that’s the situation now.”
All levels of society are grappling with the worst level of inflation seen in decades, but it’s harder for some than others.
“I had a single mother come in recently, she would have five or six kids. All along she was fine, managing away, but she says that the recent increases in price, especially in food, has hit hard.
“She said that everything she normally buys in the supermarket has gone up by 50 cent to a euro. Some things have even gone up by €2 in the last six months. If you’re buying 50 items you’re spending a lot more money.”
Karen says there is a limit to what Feed Clare can provide to its clients and that has meant it has to halve the days it opens.
“We don’t provide a week’s shopping, it’s a top up, about two to three days of groceries. Because of the increase and because there is a set amount that we get from the FEAD organisation, we’ve been having to close every second week.”
She said they would like to return to a weekly operation in the future, but it’s not currently an option, and they looked at other options before making the decision.
“We considered putting a cap on our numbers and not taking anymore, but then we thought we’d be better off giving to more people every second week, rather than turning people away, so we decided to do that instead.”
While some information has to be provided by those accessing the foodbank, she says it is minimal and people’s details are kept private.
“You come in, give your name and some details like your address, the number of people in the household, your phone number and show identification. All of that information is kept on an app, which is only used by me.
“I have to submit numbers to the organisation FEAD that provides the food, but it’s only numbers that are submitted, no names, so it’s very confidential.”
The Feed Clare foodbank will next open on November 11 at 11.30am.
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
