Soup kitchen opens in Navan

 “We are genuine and we are here to help” - that is the message from Mark O’Neill, the man behind a new cafe in Navan that expects to serve between 800 to 1000 hot meals a week to those in need.

The Navan Soup Kitchen on Brews Hill will be serving breakfast, dinner and tea, free of charge to those who need it, from 9am to 5pm each day.
As controversy arose around the cafe this week, Mr O’Neill has defended the voluntary organisation against critics who have queried its charitable status and questioned its funding.
He has also strongly defended his own record working for charity.
He pointed out that the voluntary group has formed a company, which has applied for charitable status to the Charities Regulator and all their paperwork has been published on the Navan Buy Sell and Swap Facebook Page for all to see.
Referring to newspaper and television reports that he had been involved with the Irish Stroke Association which had its charitable status withdrawn, he points out that he was brought in by that charity for a three month period to help them get out of debt, and once that was achieved he and the chairman of the charity approached the revenue commissioners and asked them to dissolve it.
“I can see why people are asking these questions and they are dead right to question groups that look for donations, but our accounts have been fully audited and every bit of correspondance with the regulator is on the internet for eveyone to see,” he said.
The Soup Kitchen which opened on Brews Hill last Friday will also provide food parcels for those reluctant to visit the centre and asks anyone in need of this help to contact them by private message on their Facebook page.
Mr O’Neill explains that they want to help anyone that is hungry or in need - whether they are sleeping rough, are in emergency accommodation or simply cannot affordf to feed themselves when they have paid their bills and expenses.
“People come to us for all sorts of reasons,” he said. “Elderly people come to have somewhere warm to sit and have a cup of tea and a snack with a friend.
“We welcome everybody that needs help and there is no stigma attached. It is just like an ordinary coffee shop where you can come in and sit down and have a meal.”
The soup kitchen will be serving a full Irish breakfast in the morning, a choice of three hot dinners at lunchtime and an evening meal such as soup and sandwiches.
“We expect to serve between 800 and 1,000 meals a week when people realise we are here,” he said.

Volunteers

The Irish Soup Kitchen Centres group is run totally by volunteers and nobody receives a salary.
The organisation has a soup kitchen which has been up and running for 13 months in Drogheda and plans to open a new facility in Ushers Quay in Dublin in the near future.
As well as providing food parcels to people in need, just this week they also launched a soup and sandwich run in Dublin city centre to provide food to rough sleepers who may be catered for in the city at night, but who receive little help during the daytime.
Mr O’Neill said that since they had opened in Drogheda 13 months ago, they had served 100,355 hot meals up to last Friday.
“In the two years we are in existence, we have delivered €1,120,000 worth of food hampers to houses in Louth, Meath and North Dublin where people are in need,”
When we first opened in Drogheda we thought we would be serving around 100 meals a week, but it ended up being 2,000.
He said the charity has been made aware of the homeless problem in Navan and situations where families are in emergency accommodation with no facilities for cooking, as well as the fact that there are a lot of people who are struggling to feed themselves and their families.
“Despite Navan being considered a relatively prosperous area, there seems to be a high volume of people in need of this help,” he said.
Mr O’Neill explained that a lot of the food is donated by companies such as Ballymaguire Foods, Country Crest, Meade Potatoes, Natures Best, Boyne Valley Foods, Boston Donuts, Milan Foods, Bradys Ham and Little Acorns Bakery.
Funds for food, lighting, heating, insurance rents etc are raised through the sale of pens and raffles.