‘I’m so grateful to everyone for being so kind, allowing us to keep going when people need us most’

The Meath Food Bank which has helped thousands of local people since the start of the pandemic, and 140 families over Christmas, has been officially designated a charity by the charity regulator.

This follows a very busy Christmas for founder, Ashling Lowe, and her volunteers who have become a life-line for struggling families in the county.

Ashling had to make a heartfelt plea in December for help, as overheads threatened the future of the food bank and she has praised the local community for coming to the rescue and saving the vital service from closure just days before Christmas.

Thanks to the goodwill of the community, a GoFundMe appeal raised almost €4,800 in a matter of days after she made an appeal in the Meath Chronicle.

"This together with a number of cash donations from local businesses has ensured that the service that has helped around 3,500 people since the pandemic hit can keep operating for the next twelve months," she says.

Ashling and her volunteers provided assistance to over 140 families over Christmas.

"The good news is that now we are a registered charity, we will be able to fundraise to help pay for overhead costs such as rents," she says.

Ashling who has had frontline healthcare workers and retired Irish soldiers coming to her for help over lockdown was struggling to pay the rent for The Food Bank's premises in Navan.

Aisling says she has been "overwhelmed" by the generosity of locals.

"The donations seem to keep coming in, I can't get over it. We are up in the thousands and that is my rent covered for one whole year. There will be enough in the kitty for food and rent and they are all of our expenses.

"I'm so grateful to everyone for being so kind and allowing us to keep going when people need us most.

"The food bank is a lifeline for a lot of people in this county.

"People who have anything extra are trying to look after it but they are willing to share it and that's an amazing thing.

"A lot of people who got help in lockdown are now the ones that are giving back and that's the way any good food bank should operate, the community should provide for it."

"Everyone has had a really tough couple of years with the pandemic and being out of work, last year was one of the busiest years the food bank has ever had, it got kind of scary for me to be honest, I was working 12 hour days at the beginning sending out 20 hampers every single day.

"People who were never out of work in their lives before have had to rely on the food bank.

“We have Irish soldiers on our list whose 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've had healthcare workers working on the frontline during this pandemic with no food in their presses looking for assistance.

“I have so many people who are ashamed ringing and that is heart breaking 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.

"A lot of people who work in hospitality didn't get their full hours back, they keep moving the goal posts and it has become worse for them now with the latest restrictions, they are living in uncertainty, that's a terrible position to be in when you have a family."

Ashling, who started the food bank from her home in 2014, says she sees no end in sight to the demand of the food bank with the rising cost of living.

The Meath Food Bank receives no government funding.

"The community are the ones who have picked up the ball where the government have dropped it.

"People are just working to live. All of the bills have gone up, electricity, gas, you name it, even filling your car with petrol to get to work has become a struggle, not to mention how the private rental market is crucifying people, I can't get to sleep at night sometimes with the stories I hear," she says.

Ashling believes those who approach her to avail of the service are genuine and is more concerned about people who are afraid to ask for help.

"Like every organisation that is charitable, you have to take that risk when someone calls you, you take their word. I would be more concerned with people suffering in silence and afraid to reach out. There is no shame in asking for help.

"Men really suffer in silence because they feel like they can't provide."

Even though the mother of one started the community initiative, it would not exist without the help of her 30 strong volunteers who deliver essentials to families in need across the county.

"I would be lost without my volunteers, they are the heart and soul of this service, they are the reason we can help so many people." As well as seeing the best in humanity over recent weeks, the worst also came to the forefront during lockdown as the community activist explains:

“In March of last year when it all kicked off it was just a nightmare, it wasn’t that people weren’t giving - everyone was giving vouchers but then we had the greedy spell where everyone was clearing the shelves in the shops, I couldn’t stock the food bank for love nor money.

"There were mothers coming into the food bank saying they would buy the baby food from me, because it was that hard to get.

“When people were panic buying and supermarkets were opening earlier from 7am or 8am, come Friday when the elderly people went out to pick up their pension at 9am and went to do their shopping, there was nothing left.

“There were a lot of elderly people very upset because they couldn’t get what they needed.”

The Trim woman was inspired to start a movement to help struggling families after vowing to return the generosity she and her family received from the local community when their home was destroyed in a fire when she was a child.

“My mother and I were made homeless in the 80s when our house burned to the ground in a house fire in Athboy. Literally, all we had is what we stood in, we lost everything. The people in Athboy were so kind, they all got together and had a benefit night for the people that lost their homes.

“I remember people bringing bags of toys to the door and handing me clothes and my mother saying to me, if you ever see somebody in this situation, you'll know to help them when you get a bit older in life. People have been so good to us and it has just stuck with me.”