Food bank secures new storage spaces at Firhouse CC grounds

THE Ballycullen Food Bank has secured a new storage space in the grounds of Firhouse Community College, which officially began being used last Monday.

Representatives from the food bank and staff from Amazon Web Services (AWS), which helped to kit out the storage units, were on hand on the day.

The voluntary service has struggled with a lack of storage space for donated goods in recent months, as requests for help continue to spiral.

One of the volunteers from the food bank, Sue Ralph, told The Echo: “It’s getting out of control, the number of people coming to the food bank.

“With social welfare payments being cut left, right and centre, people are struggling.

“There are also people who are still working, but they’ve fallen behind with their mortgage and bills going up and they can’t cope – there’s no help for anybody who actually works.

“You go out and earn a hard day’s living and you still might not be able to afford to live.”

The Ballycullen Food Bank provides a monthly service where they supply groceries for upwards of 120 people, who make contact with them through their Facebook page and get an appointment.

At the appointment, they’ll get to meet one of the service’s four volunteers, Tracy Griffin, Roisín Cosgrove, Paula Murray or Sue Ralph, and will collect their groceries confidentially.

The service has been supported by Knocklyon United Football Club who provide some storage space for it, but the food bank has felt the strain of having limited storage space.

It is hoped that this will now be alleviated by the new spaces in Firhouse CC, which have been kitted out with fridges, freezers and shelving.

“It’s great, because there was a time when we had a massive influx of donations and sometimes we’ve to turn them away, but we hate turning down stuff because we have no room for it,” said Sue.

“We approached Firhouse Community College because we knew the Educate Together school was there for a couple of years, but now those units are empty.

“So we just broached the subject with them, and my son goes to school there and we supply some of the families there, so we have that link.”

The school happily supported the food bank, while AWS helped to get the spaces into good working order for the service.

There has been no reduction in demand for the services of the Ballycullen Food Bank since it was set up in 2020, and Sue believes that requests for help will continue to increase.

“We shouldn’t need food banks,” said Sue. “If we were running a business, we’d be multi-millionaires because we’re growing exponentially.

“We want it to decline, but I don’t think that’s going to happen – I think we’ll keep going because people keep needing us.

“People shouldn’t need food banks in this day and age. We’re a very rich country, but it’s not given out fairly.”

Requests for assistance can be made by contacting Ballycullen Food Bank on Facebook, while donations can be left into the Park Community Centre from Monday to Saturday every week.

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