Meath Food Bank ‘lifeline’ facing closure

Meath Food Bank could be forced to close its doors in the new year if funding is not sourced says its heartbroken founder.

Ashling Lowe has made a heartfelt plea for assistance as overheads threatens the future of the vital resource.

The Trim woman is in the process of applying for charitable status that would enable better fundraising opportunities for the volunteer led operation but is currently struggling to pay the rent for The Food Bank's premises in Navan.

Ashling who has been running the Meath Food Bank since 2014 recently revealed that her team has offered assistance to approximately 3,500 people in the county since the first lockdown in March 2020 delivering up to twenty hampers a day to families in need at the height of the pandemic.

With further restrictions putting financial pressure on people from all backgrounds, the food bank is under more pressure than ever with the care home worker inundated with calls and messages from desperate families struggling to make ends meet coming up to Christmas.

Speaking about the pressures on the community “lifeline” she said: “I'm holding on to it with death's grip by fingernails at the minute, I am hoping that there is somebody out there who can help us keep going.

“A local business, ArcRoyal in Kells kindly donated November's rent so all I have to worry about now is December so I'm hoping that somebody comes up trumps.

“At the moment I have 82 hampers and counting to go out at Christmas and that figure will probably rise into the hundreds, it has been a tough year for everyone.

“The food bank is a lifeline for a lot of people in this county, I have given everything to it over the past few years, I would be devastated if it had to close.”

It is always generous donations from local people and businesses that have allowed Ashling to stay afloat as she explains:

“Tesco has saved my skin on so many occasions and covered the rent. They have been so helpful and have welcomed us with open arms into Navan.”

The kindhearted care home worker says people from “all walks of life and all different circumstances” avail of the service. She added:

“We have Irish soldiers on our list and they are in private rented accommodation and their pensions are absolutely shameful and they might ring once a month for help after they have paid their rent and there is just nothing left not even for heat or food.

“I have so many people who are ashamed ringing, the first thing you are met with is somebody breathless that you can't even understand on the phone and that is heartbreaking because these are people who have worked their whole lives who have never had to ask for anything but when you get so desperate and you have nothing left in your press to feed your kids, you'll do anything.”

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