‘People seem to be panicking’: More than 3,000 queue for Christmas food vouchers

Older people and young children were among more than 3,000 people who began queuing from before dawn on Tuesday for Christmas food vouchers at the Capuchin day centre in Dublin.

By 6.30am, about 30 people were already in line waiting for the hatch, from which the centre's manager Alan Bailey would give out the vouchers, to open.

When the hatch opened just after 8am, up to 800 people were in the queue which stretched down Bow Street and around onto May Lane, towards Church Street.

Tickets were handed out last week and only those who could produce them on Tuesday got hampers.

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The centre, which provides thousands of hot take-away meals to some of the city’s poorest people weekly, normally gives Christmas hampers of non-perishable foods. For pandemic related health and safety reasons this year and last, however, it has provided grocery vouchers, valued at €50.

Brother Kevin Crowley, founder of the centre, said people had been queuing from 5.30 am.

“I think, with the increased numbers every week, some might have been panicking about getting the voucher. We are noticing people seem to be panicking, more anxious, in a big way. The whole thing has got far worse in the last year. It’s very sad.”

There were numerous parents with children - some sleeping in their arms, others in school uniforms with school bags. Other adults were in wheelchairs or supported with walking frames.

A woman in her 60s who had grandchildren to help feed said she was "very worried" about increasing costs. "This voucher is very, very important, will go a long way. With the ESB and gas heating you're watching when you put it on, how long you're putting it on. It's very hard when there are children in the house."

One young man said he, his wife and baby had been homeless for two months. From Romania and working in construction for eight years in Ireland, he said: "Ireland is good for us. I work but we are in hotel now. We don't have house."

Delays in getting a birth certificate for his daughter were adding to his stress as they could not access child benefit. “We are waiting for certificate. We don’t have nothing to help pay for baby so this is help.”

Another young man, who gave his name as Aran, noted: “People are after queueing here for hours in the freezing cold for a voucher. It’s troubled time.

“The last year has been pretty difficult. I lost my partner to the Covid. When my partner passed away I couldn’t afford the rent anymore. I am in a shelter now. I’ve never been homeless before. It’s pretty bad, but it’s about taking one day at a time.”

Asked what he would do with the voucher, he said: “I might give it to my dad. I am going to him for Christmas dinner so I might give it to him to help towards the dinner.”

Bernadette McArdle (48) was one of few who would give her name. She was “quite angry” after her son, in his 20s, died while sleeping rough this year.

“I couldn’t take him to live with me as I am in a one-bedroom apartment. There was nights I did let him stay on the sofa but I wasn’t meant to. The Government did nothing for him and the mental health [services] let him out of hospital even though he was still ill,”she said.

“Brother Kevin is a saint. He is doing what the Government should be doing, actually helping people. People are really struggling. This voucher means I can put a Christmas dinner on the table.”

Across the road from the centre, Mr Bailey shows some of the truck-loads of donations the charity has received in the past month from across the country.

The large, multi-roomed warehouse has boxes and shelves filled with non-perishables including crackers, crisps, biscuits, cereals, canned vegetables, beans, tea bags, sugar, cordials, noodles, porridge oats, chocolates, pasta sauces, coffee, mince-pies, as well as baby clothes, nappies and toiletries. All will be sorted, he says, and provided to those who need them from January.

“We’ve had people driving up from Kilkenny, GAA clubs, with van-loads of foodstuffs,” says Brother Kevin. The amount of foodstuffs we have got in over the last few days is unbelievable.”

When he founded the centre in 1969 about 60 people a day came for a hot meal. Now they are serving up to 1,600 a day, as well as providing weekly food-parcels. “The level of need was not as high then,” he says. “Our running costs are over €3 million, and it all comes in. People are wonderful. We get €450,000 from the Government, and that’s been the same amount for years.”

The centre will close on Christmas day and St Stephen’s Day, reopening Monday 27th for breakfast.