Post by Wasp on Dec 22, 2010 17:44:02 GMT
'If there weren't centres like this, people would starve to death on the streets'
The Irish Times
Monday, December 20, 2010
In 1969 a soup kitchen was opened in Dublin to help the homeless and down and outs living rough on its streets. 50 people came to use the centre regularly but this took off and soon there were 10 times that number relying on this facility just to survive. In the last 18 months however with the advent of the recent banking crisis down there and the resultant national bankruptcy plus EU bailout of the country, even that figure has doubled to over a thousand people per day.
The centre run by the Capuchins, provides on top of breakfasts, showers clean clothes, shoes and even food parcels for hard up families. The centre gets 400,000 euros from the Irish government plus 1.2 million euros from public donations.
Chef Roy Campbell who has been working there for 11 years and seen his workload rapidly increasing, when asked did he think numbers attending would increase even more, given the dire financial situation gripping the country replied “Nobody knows where we’re headed now.”
It was further summed up by one of its users a Mr Noel Fegan an ex-lorry driver who hasn't been able to find a job for 13 years, when he stated
'If there weren't centres like this, people would starve to death on the streets' and ended by saying;
"The rich people of Ireland need to know that places like this are keeping the streets cleaner than they would be if these places didn’t exist.”
The Irish Times
Monday, December 20, 2010
In 1969 a soup kitchen was opened in Dublin to help the homeless and down and outs living rough on its streets. 50 people came to use the centre regularly but this took off and soon there were 10 times that number relying on this facility just to survive. In the last 18 months however with the advent of the recent banking crisis down there and the resultant national bankruptcy plus EU bailout of the country, even that figure has doubled to over a thousand people per day.
The centre run by the Capuchins, provides on top of breakfasts, showers clean clothes, shoes and even food parcels for hard up families. The centre gets 400,000 euros from the Irish government plus 1.2 million euros from public donations.
Chef Roy Campbell who has been working there for 11 years and seen his workload rapidly increasing, when asked did he think numbers attending would increase even more, given the dire financial situation gripping the country replied “Nobody knows where we’re headed now.”
It was further summed up by one of its users a Mr Noel Fegan an ex-lorry driver who hasn't been able to find a job for 13 years, when he stated
'If there weren't centres like this, people would starve to death on the streets' and ended by saying;
"The rich people of Ireland need to know that places like this are keeping the streets cleaner than they would be if these places didn’t exist.”