Turning Meath’s food banks into sustainable community hubs

By Justyna Doherty / Coordinator Trim Family Resource Centre

As the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit households across County Meath, local food banks are seeing more and more people at their doors each week. But the simple charity based model of “donate what you can” and “take what you need” is neither enough, nor is sustainable. We have an opportunity - right here in our county and beyond - to transform food banks into sustainable community hubs that both support families excluded from the benefits of Ireland’s economic growth and contribute to the circular economy.

Earlier this month, RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne programme visited a Community Food Bank in Trim Family Resource Centre (FRC). The report painted a familiar picture: families struggling to stretch their weekly shop, staff and volunteers doing their best with limited space and resources, and an ever-increasing demand for help. It was a powerful reminder that, while generosity and goodwill are strong in Meath, the system still relies heavily on overstretched people and underfunded facilities. The stigma of accessing food banks was last week discussed on LMFM Radio Show with Adrian Kennedy sparking shock across the local community by revealing that many families turning to food banks - despite the stigma - are actually working families.

Around the same time, presidential hopeful Catherine Connolly spoke during her campaigning after a visit to Trim FRC where she described hearing about parents who had gone without meals for days so their children could eat. Her comments captured the quiet hardship that many local families are facing and reflected what so many local groups already know: food insecurity is a growing reality across Ireland, including right here in Meath.

Ireland already has an inspiring example in FoodCloud - we know from the success of FoodCloud that surplus food from supermarkets and suppliers can be collected and redistributed efficiently. But not every part of Meath has the storage space, transport, or staff to take part in that system.

This is where Meath County Council could make a real difference - awarding small seed-grants to enable, say, five or six pilot hubs across the county would extend access to food surplus and ensure no town is left behind.

A small capital grant scheme to help local groups invest in refrigerated storage, solar-powered freezers, or shared transport for food collections, and a funding stream for a Community Food Hubs Coordinator would help in setting up and running food community hubs across Meath.

With that basic infrastructure in place, volunteers and staff could safely collect surplus food from local supermarkets registered with FoodCloud and Neighbourly platforms such as Aldi, Dunnes Stores, Lidl, M&S and Tesco, as well as from local farms or food producers and make it accessible to families pushed to the margins by an unequal economy.

Beyond that, a community food hub could become a real local asset - offering cookery demonstrations, preserving and composting workshops. Local schools and youth clubs could be involved too, teaching practical skills around nutrition, budgeting, and reducing waste. The result? Less waste, more skills, and a stronger sense of local pride.

By re-imagining food banks in this way, Meath could lead the way nationally in building a local circular-economy model. Each kilo of food saved from the bin means fewer greenhouse-gas emissions, more affordable meals for families facing the everyday struggles of inequality in Ireland, and stronger ties between local businesses and community groups.

As Catherine Connolly pointed out during her visit, hunger and hardship are issues that demand long-term thinking. With the right backing from local authorities and in partnership with community partners, Meath’s food banks could evolve into permanent, sustainable community food hubs - where food surplus is transformed into meals and local waste becomes local value. A reliably resourced community food-hub means dignity, better food access and connection rather than just food hand-outs.

It’s time to move beyond crisis response to supporting families left behind by rising costs and low wages, and Meath is well placed to show how it can be done.