Teach Dara Kildare Town Community and Family Resource Centre established a Foodbank in October 2019. Initially, we collected food through the FoodCloud retail solution but progressed to Foodcloud Hub membership last year. 

As a Family Resource Centre we support families through a range of services - Parent and Toddler group, healthy eating courses, Grandparents group, counselling, plus family and educational supports to aid the whole family. We also offer outreach services from MABS and found that the number of families we were supporting with arrears were also experiencing food poverty. 

By introducing a Food Bank, we have been in a position to engage with families and single men who may never have accessed the Centre before. Covid’s arrival in March 2020 allowed for a shift in our service to an outdoor service which allowed for a different type of engagement with people enquiring “what are you doing?” through our gate at the entrance. 

To date, we have run 276 sessions of Fridays Foodbank from 9.30-10.30 am from the Centre feeding 20 families and during lockdowns we also directly fed 30 families on a weekly basis. We have a direct link with these families and single people, supporting them not only with food but also with advice on budgeting and eating healthier. 

We have a number of food bank users who avail of our other services and feel that their lives have been improved.  Of course, there are always users who will never engage in our other services, particularly some of the older men who “ I only come for the chat with yas on a Friday Sarah !!” But that connection through food remains important. 

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FoodCloud has given us the opportunity to help those who really just want to be able to help themselves without being seen as “poor”. We always have a treat in the bag from blue smoothies to posh chocolates, and we have a laugh with our clients,  making using our services a bit more welcoming.