Hundreds turn to local Southside food bank

A FOOD bank that was set up on the Southside where it operated out of the boot of a car is now feeding 300 families a week.

As the current Covid-19 crisis makes its impact felt, locally-based initatives like the ‘People’s Foodbank’ have become vital resources for communities.

The community-based project grew from the Bluebell Community Church initiative that supplyed food hampers at Christmas and to families in need at various times.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Bluebell Community Church and Bluebell Community Development Project joined together to expand this initiative.

Last Thursday, October 1 the ‘People’s Foodbank’ was officially launched by Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Hazel Chu (pictured below.)

Tommy Coombes, manager of Bluebell Community Development Project (CDP) and Pastor Jimmy Dunne of Bluebell Community Church are the co-founders of this new Southside food bank.

“With great support from local agencies and like-minded people we have collectively harnessed this potential and goodwill to create ‘The People’s Foodbank’ for the people of Bluebell and beyond,” Tommy Coombes told Southside People following the launch.

“It has literally gone from the boot of Pastor Jimmy Dunne’s car to become a vital resource for communities in these most difficult times.

“We initially started out small back in March, delivering 400kgs of food a week.

“We are now distributing up to 2.5 tonnes of food a week to around 300 families from all over Dublin.

“We get no State funding and most of the food is provided by Foodcloud who say they are dealing with a dramatic increase in demand since March.”

Tommy says that other local food banks are closing as volunteers return to employment.

However, the People’s Foodbank is now extending their services to surrounding areas and even have clients from beyond Dublin in Tullamore and Drogheda.

“Going forward we can’t afford 2.5 tonnes of food a week in the long term, we are really hoping we get some statutory support,” he says.

“In order to maintain our service we need to mainstream funding.

“Foodcloud haven’t been charging since May 1 but are reintroducing their 50 cent per kilo charge from October 1 to cover costs.

“It means we’ll have a weekly bill of €1,200, along with a monthly rent of €1,000 for our new storage facility in Parkwest.

“The most recent asset to our project has come from the Harris Truck Group who kindly donated a van to us for our deliveries.

“They’ve also offered us free servicing of the van which is hugely appreciated so I want to thank their CEO Denise Harris for sorting this all out.

“We plan to continue to expand this valuable resource as it has exposed so many needs in communities that are not being addressed.

“We would welcome any support and help going forward.”

Among the guests at the official launch was Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor Daithí Doolan, who is also member of the Bluebell Community Council.

“This is a truly genuine community-based response to food poverty,” Cllr Doolan told Southside People.

“During the recent Covid lockdown the Bluebell Community Council delivered food to vulnerable and elderly residents.

“This has now become an essential part of our work.

“Today marks a significant development of this service.

“The food Bank is real partnership in action.

“It involves community groups and agencies working together to meet the challenge of poverty head on.

“Bluebell did not wait for others to give a hand out.

“It worked with others to provide this essential service.”