Souper troopers celebrate first anniversary in Navan

The Navan Soup Kitchen on Brews Hill served an astonishing 34,978 hot meals to the hungry and homeless in the past year.

The Brews Hill facility is celebrating its first anniversary and revealed the number of meals it served up since it first opened its doors this time last year.
As well as providing food to needy people in the Brews Hill premises, they have also provided 1,926 food hampers to families in the area.
Irish Soup Kitchen Centres, which runs the Navan facility, also has a similar centre in Drogheda.
The Navan facility is currently holding information mornings on Tuesdays for people with housing problems or who are struggling with drink or drug issues.
Mark O’Neill, director of operations explains: “If you have a housing or drink or drug problem, you can sit down with different organisations, for example - SOSAD and the Simon Community. You will get a friendly reception and hopefully a successful outcome to your problem. So far we have been successful in getting some people housing and others are being treated for addition.”
The information mornings take place from 10.30am to 12.30pm on Tuesdays.
“Some people have approached me and asked why we are feeding alcoholics, drug addicts and the homeless, that they can sort themselves out if the want to,” says Mark O’Neill.
“I would have had the same opinion 20 years ago but as you go through life and see different situations, it is only then the penny drops.
“I would not like if it was my son or daughter in these circumstances, where are are so ill from depression, drink or drugs, yet they have nobody here to help them. That is why we do what we do,” Mark says.
“We want to not only feed the people, we also want to address their problem, so that all of our people can have the basic human rights of a good hot meal or two per day, a roof over their heads and a little bit of happiness.”
Mark would like to thank all the people and companies who contribute to the centre as well as all volunteers who work so hard there as well as his wife and family and all board members.
Among the list of donors are Ballymaguire Foods, Country Crest, Arc Royal, Boyne Valley Foods, Carmel in Navan Hospital Coffee Shop, Meade Potatoes, Charlie’s Butchers, Blackcastle, D&M Bakery,  Railway Street, Tesco, Taylors Chubby Chappies and Pink Ladies, Johnstown, Mens Shed, all the schools in Navan and surrounding areas, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, running clubs and the people of Navan.