‘I have had people crying on the phone with the hunger’
The terminally ill, the elderly and desperate mothers of young children are among those who are depending on a local food bank as the cost of living crisis leaves people at breaking point.
Meath Food Bank's Ashling Lowe says the last couple of weeks have "left her on her knees" as dwindling donations and an increased demand for the service saw the volunteer-run operation struggling to survive.
Thankfully a number of local organisations, businesses and politicians have come to the rescue allowing for the vital community initiative to keep going but it will need constant support to stay afloat according to Ashling who says the heartbreaking calls she receives on a daily basis are difficult to cope with.
"The past three weeks with the food bank have brought me to my knees because our hands were tied, there was just no food coming in whatsoever," she said.
"I have had people cry on the phone with the hunger.
"We couldn't dive into our GoFundMe account because we had marked out several withdrawal dates so we could take a little bit out at a time to get us over the hard times just to manage the money properly and to fairly distribute it.
"Last week we did a restock of €850 and now that's starting to go down. We have a lot of elderly service users now, it's hitting them really hard, it's very sad to see. We have two terminally ill people who are getting help from us too.
"Everyone is scared, no one knows what's ahead of them and sadly it's the most vulnerable who will suffer the most."
The Food Bank that is based in Navan has helped over 1,000 families this year and a seen a huge rise is people looking to avail of the service.
Last year, Ashling had to make a heartfelt plea as overheads threatened the future of the food bank going on to praise 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.
"It's costing us €1,800 per week to run the food bank, between the rent, bills and the food and it's worrying me because there's already after been ten food banks that have closed between Ireland and England because they just couldn't keep going with the demand," she said.
"People don't have it to have the extra to give anymore, they are trying to look after their own families with food.
"We have never had to be so careful with our spending. We have to bring our hampers down to the bare minimum that's needed.
"Trim Haymaking Festival donated €500 to us on Saturday and Tesco Navan donated €1,000 which was super. Slowly but surely the donations are coming back in. Councillor Alan Lawes whose own home is being repaired after a fire, donated €3,000 of his discretionary fund and Cllr Emer Tóibín donated €700 from hers."
Ashling says it's decent hardworking people contacting her for help and many of them feel ashamed to be making the call.
"We have mothers who are feeling like they are letting their kids down and they are suffering with depression and anxiety.
"People who are in emergency accommodation are affected the most, they don't have bills coming in the door to worry about, but they have no home.
"We are helping 50 to 60 families a week."
Ashling is appealing for support for the annual homeless walk from Trim to Dublin on November 6th.
"We are leaving Jack Quinn's pub in Trim at 7am and we arrive in Dublin around 6.30pm, we walk the whole 55.6km to the Phoenix Park.
"This is our 6th year and we are hoping we get a good turn out and if any businesses would like to get on board, we would be very grateful."