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ONE IN THREE calls made to St Vincent de Paul are related to food poverty, the charity said today.
Annually, St Vincent de Paul spends between €11 millon and €12 million per year helping households with the cost of food.
Food poverty refers to the inability to afford, or to have access to, food to make up a healthy diet, and data from the Survey of Income and Living Conditions estimates that one in 11 people in Ireland experience it.
Families tend to cut back on food when struggling financially because a food budget is easier to control than the cost of rent or utilities, Dr Tricia Keilthy, the charity’s head of social justice, said.
So food is typically what families cut back on when times are tough. Rising housing costs means that this is increasingly the case.
“While costs of food have decreased in recent years, some households are better able to avail of cheaper food than others,” Kielthy said.
People living in rural areas without access to a car are not able to take advantage of deals and offers in larger supermarkets, she added.
Research by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice shows that the average cost of a healthy food basket for a two-parent household with two school-aged children in an urban area is €146 per week, compared to €160 a week for the same of household in a rural area.
As well as the health impacts of a poor diet, we should also be concerned about the impacts of food poverty on children’s social, emotional and educational outcomes. When children go to school hungry it has an impact on their well-being, concentration and attention levels, behaviour, learning and motivation.
Long-term solutions that tackle the underlying causes of food poverty are needed in addition programmes like the School Meals Programme, Kielthy said.
She called on all government departments to support the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion, currently being developed by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The plan aims to reduce consistent poverty across Ireland.
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I did voluntary work for St Vincent de Paul about ten years ago and after a few months realised the futility of it. The majority, (but not all and that’s important to say) need to get their priorities in line. Cigarettes don’t come before food for example or a few quid for the pub doesn’t come before the electricity bill or more difficult to accept, but still true is another child shouldn’t be on the way if one can’t afford to put clothes on the first one. Education is the way forward in my opinion based on experience, not only hand outs.
@Jack Jackson: you’re not wrong there.. some can afford 10 euro for cigs yet cry about not being able to put food on the table
@Jack Jackson:
I bet your a real model of what it’s like to be perfect jack in your own little bubble, you should have stayed working with them until you became a little more humbled.
@courageous: Interesting, yet revealing reaction from you there. The truth hurts as it always does for those who fail to take responsibility. I don’t need to say anymore. Anyway, best wishes. I wish you well.
@Jack Jackson:
Sorry if I hit a nerve jack lol best wishes to you too my friend
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: Here we go again. Another article about the disadvantaged and vulnerable and we have the usual goulish comments from the usual class who probably would know what a hungry day is in their pampered well paid lives.
The fact is SVP is all but useless to those in real need of help. It can take 10 days to 2 weeks to get a response for help.
Those in real need don’t have a cent to squander on anything. Every cent goes to pay some lender, be it bank or vulture so they can keep a roof over their and their families heads. This leaves them in food poverty, and in poverty in other areas.
Ken Smollen distributes no perishable food items to 300 and more, families in food poverty on a daily basis. He collects the donated food generously given by many people and business around the Midlands area. He tells the real story about food and other poverty he sees on a daily basis.
Have a look at his FB page and see the truth of the reality of life in the country for many.
The inhumanity continuously shown by a certain number of commentors here, the attempts to discredit the needy and vulnerable is disgraceful, its sickening to be honest. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
@Dave Doyle:
Very well said Dave and so true
@courageous: Reverse psychology only works when you haven’t already exposed your energy. I’m not the one who reacted with anger.
@Dave Doyle: Usual class ? Give over ..maybe some of us have seen it for ourselves when it comes to those on social welfare .. I say some not all people on welfare are the same . You cannot deny that when you weigh up all the benefits that they receive versus what they pay out.. theres a big difference between them and people who have to pay for everything..especially for those who are just over the limit to receive help .
@Jack Jackson: The fact that you replyed again says it all . volunteered with the vincent d paul , yeh right , as General Archyball Shorthorn Junior the 14th said at the great battle of bryers creek. TAXI
@Dave Doyle: who are the usual class?
@Niall Brew:
Well it’s not the working class nor is it the middle class but it’s the class that like to do nothing but moan about every one and every thing in society usually people made up of both classes
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: Social deprevation rife all over the country. What’s touched on here is only the tip of the iceberg. It is deliberately kept hidden so people don’t know the reality of what’s going on in the country. Have you or any one else trying to slander and discredit those in dire need of help ever taken the time to actually read what those who deal with it on a daily basis have to say?
It all has one common denominator the collapse of the banks.The cut backs or removal of the social services for austerity purposes, the loss of jobs or the reduction in pay, the refusal of the bailed out banks to engage with those who through no fault of their own found themselves in dire circumstances.Only today the HUB Ireland tells of the suicide of another man who could no longer carry on such was the pressure from the bank. Have you read about this anywhere? Or do you just accept the fact this sad needless death, this suicide will go unreported?
I’m going to keep hammering the truth out every time there’s an article here on anything to do with the social deprecation that abounds in the country, and calling out the disgusting inhumanity displayed in the comments.
@Dave Doyle: Well the cost of living in Ireland is now at dangerous levels. Along with companies who are just shipping low paid workers into jobs in Dublin doing local language jobs. One company employs 20 percent Irish people out of 7,000 . They pay nothing towards tax but use our resources and are driving up rents. I mean people complain like this is unique to Ireland. This is capitalism and Ireland is very vinerable when we only have about 2 million or so able to pay tax.
They being the companies not the workers.
@Dave Doyle: Hi Dave..you are dead right. And fair play to you for keeping everyone informed. The FG Koolaiders want the real affects of the continuing FG policies to be silenced. It is a god damn disgrace.
@Jack Jackson: Shame on you, I know people living in poverty working to pay bills and in negativity equity in their home. Absolutely nothing left to do anything with except contact the St. Vincent de Paul to help when they run out of money and not for themselves I might add but for the kids. I have even had to ask for help myself as a carer I have often run out of money and need help with coal or food especially during the winter. You might have a few people scamming but the most are very genuine vulnerable people that look for help for the St. Vincent de Paul, there would be a lot more people out there with serious mental health issues without their help. A lot has happened in Ireland in the past 10 year’s were the country was robbed by the bailout and left many here in situations they may not have been in otherwise. People in glass houses and all that you know!!
@Dave Doyle: Well said!!!
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: Right I get 206 per week carers allowance out of that my rent is €75 per week, coal €25, electricity €25, petrol as I have to run a 03′ car as I have to take my disabled son to his appointments €50 a week that gives me €30 for food. And most people I know are in the same situation, people like yourself should try and live on the dole money for a week and see how you get on, what benefits? That’s my total income except the child benefit of €140 per month and that pays for my son’s speech and language.
@Charliegrl80: well said to you too…on both your comments.
@Jack Jackson:
Aren’t you the saint. Helping ‘the poor’, in their ignorance. Well, for a time.
Would be more to go around if the SVP stop spending thousands each week in Irish prisons on tobacco and trainers .
@James Byrne: Do you have references to support that? I always give to SVP but not if that is where my money is going….
@B9xiRspG: unfortunately I do. I work within prison system. For that reason I don’t give to SVP.
@B9xiRspG: Anybody can request amount distributed by SVP within Irish prisons under freedom of information act. It’s thousands.
@James Byrne:
Do you not have any empathy for the prisoners James, after all they are keeping you in a job
@courageous: Not keeping me in a job,,I chose to work within system. Yes there are families straving out there which deserve help and rightfully should get it. Consequences have actions,if you do commit a crime and get custodial sentence,,tough. A bad childhood does not entitle someone to inflict suffering on another and before you tell me I don’t understand yes I do. I was hungry at times at child and homeless but I didn’t inflict suffering on another,so no I don’t have empathy for prisoners only victims.
@James Byrne:
Good man James I do believe in your sincerety and all I can say is you have my respect, enjoy the rest of your day
@courageous: I will indeed,,great day for the drying.
@James Byrne: do they seriously purchase tobacco for prisoners??
@Johnhunky Dory: Yes. Every Sunday they attend various prisons and talk to prisoners and take orders for tobacco. The tobacco is then supplied via prison tuk shop and paid for by SVP.
A true snapshot of a society is how well the less fortunate live …..
Where is all the “free house” “life is great on the social” now when you see statistics like that
@Is Mise jay: quite a few working poor getting help. It’s not all that black & white. A friend of mime works for the society in his free time & some of the stories he’s told me would make the blood boil & run cold simultaneously.
@Is Mise jay: a couple with kids on social welfare would fare out better than some couples with who have to pay for everything and get no help at all ..
Yes I’m not one bit surprised. Since the recession people’s income have not increased much despite having large mortgages hanging over them since the Celtic Tiger days.
Don’t support them any more because of what the pay put in wages
@cormac o neill:
Is it not a voluntary organisation
@cormac o neill: Pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys. Those charities must be run professionally by qualified people. to those people its a job like any other.
@B9xiRspG:
Well we pay our politicians quiet well and still they act like a bunch of monkeys, so I don’t think what your saying adds up
@cormac o neill: who gets paid? I know the guy on charge of the SVP and he is a volunteer
Incredibly sad in this day and age. Hungry families. FFS!
@Paul Watchorn: it’s time for a huge cultural shift towards self sufficiency and review of cultural norms. Expecting the state to provide your essential requirements is very dangerous. Alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, unlimited media and sports entertainment derails many a man from becoming strong, capable, knowledgeable and independent.
Why is Ireland sounding more and more like the U.S. everyday?
Yep…keep the recoverup going!
This is sad on an island that is now said to produce enough food for over 30 million people a year. Talking with my family comparing our costs 20 years ago, and rent and mortgage payments seem to have risen 4 to 6 times the cost of food and other items have. Greed there, it must be? There may be some who put fags, booze, and gambling ahead of buying food, but I think there are many pride wounded hungry people hidden. Could more connected thinking and education help? Such as more community garden access, food co-ops, learning how to make nutritious meals cheaply, getting to cafes that make food with ok supermarket dumped food, more rural community transport to get to decent shopping places and community meal sites?
@WoodlandBard: Very good ideas
49 cent for a bag of carrots in Lidl……..
They use to come to help my ma and da when i was a kid ,we knew them as uncle vincent,
@Elvis King:
Brilliant lol
If only the ‘love Both’ crowd really genuinely cared!!
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: unlike your lot, who couldn’t give a toss as long as they can kill the problem.
Keep the recovery going!
Give them the cigarettes that are confiscated instead of destroying them.
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