Brother Kevin above, who is now retired from the Capuchin Day Centre, but who did tremendous work helping the homeless for decades.
After its supply of weekly food bags and Christmas food package tickets swiftly ran out, the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin took steps to reassure those in need, reports Breaking News.
When stewards declared just after 9.30am on Wednesday that all 3,000 food packet tickets had been given, the individuals waiting in queue were upset and inconsolable.
The facility had also ran out of its weekly food bags around half an hour early, which was two hours sooner than normal, reports Breaking News.
Despite admitting that “20 or 30 people went away empty handed” on Wednesday, Alan Bailey of the centre made an effort to reassure them that they wouldn’t be without food for Christmas.
“We’re here to help and we will. We will ensure that they don’t go hungry, that we have food to supply them and we will supply them,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, reports Breaking News.
Mr. Bailey stated that they were not shocked by the spike in the number of people requesting help.
“The demand for our services has been increasing over the last number of years. We’re now providing over 700 dinners every day. So we weren’t surprised that there was an increase in numbers. But this was the sheer volume of people that turned up at the same time and the amount of people that were there and that the tickets went so quickly. What we’re providing will go a long way to providing a Christmas dinner and making sure that people have groceries over the Christmas period,” reports Breaking News.
The institution serves 350 breakfasts in addition to 700 dinners daily, and demand has grown by around 300 meals each day over the “last year or two,” he continued.
According to Mr. Bailey, the government provided 15% of the €4.8 million in operating expenses for the program last year, with the remaining funds coming from contributions.
“We’re totally dependent on people’s generosity. When we started 62 years ago we never thought we’d see demand grow to what it is people. And we’ve grown to meet that demand,” reports Breaking News.
Demand for the 1,450 food packs that the Capuchin Centre distributes every Wednesday morning has increased from 700 a few years ago.
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