Foyle Foodbank summer lunch support for children and teens

“What country can’t feed its children?”

That was the question posed by Denis McGowan, chairperson of Foyle Foodbank.

The foodbank is currently running a summer support programme providing breakfasts and lunches for children and teens across the city, in partnership with community groups locally.

Children ready to tuck in to the lunch at St Mary's YC summer scheme. From left, YC staff: Tiarnán Deery, Aoife O'Neill, Cliona Young, and Seán Thornton.

Karen Mullan, the organisation’s strategic development manager, explained the programme had run on a smaller scale last year, when the foodbank provided  breakfast items for summer scheme breakfast clubs.

Speaking to Derry Now, Karen said: “Foyle Foodbank decided to do the same again this year and we are now supporting about 13 organisations here. We provide cereal, spreads and dilute and on a weekly basis, then we provide bread and fruit every week. The community groups come here and collect the items.”

‘Here’ is the Foyle Foodbank, which is based at Unit 15, Apex Living Centre, Springtown Industrial Estate.

Karen added: “For some of the groups who have  teenagers, we provide tuna, beans, pot noodles and noodles, so they can do some lunches.

“But, we took it a step further this year. We felt very strongly this past year has been extremely difficult for people. On top of that, the summer is always difficult and then you add in the removal of the free school meal payment.

“We know how tight people are getting it. We see it here. In terms of our foodbank, we have more people using us for the first time, people who have never used a foodbank before, people who are working.

“So, we were planning for our summer and, in terms of capacity, we thought we would pilot with one group. We know the areas of highest deprivation Derry. There are quite a few. Skeoge was our number one priority area. It is a brand new estate, mostly new families, with approximately 40% of the population under the age of 11. There would also be Creggan and Ballymagroarty, as well as quite a number of areas in the Waterside.”

Karen admitted Foyle Foodbank would love to run the lunch summer support programme everywhere, as it does with its breakfast club but that was not possible this year.

“We decided to partner with the Skeoge and Creggan Youth Club summer schemes to provide lunches cooked by our chef, in the foodbank. This means it is not children coming in for a meal. There is no stigma. It is not advertised as being for children on free school meals. In Creggan at the minute, in terms of breakfasts and some lunch items, we are supporting Creggan Preschool and Training Trust (CPTT) with their breakfast club, for parents and toddlers. We are also supporting Creggan Neighbourhood Partnership, which caters for families. 

“Foyle Foodbank has teamed up with Feeding Britain, an organisation which does a lot of work around food support. A big part of their remit is research, lobbying and campaigning. They have funded our lunch summer support programme.

“We have employed a chef and an assistant to come in and cook the food in our kitchen. 130 meals to go out every day. 30 go to Skeoge. They have a lovely wee café area, so children and young people eat there. We also got fantastic containers, so if they don’t eat their lunch during the summer scheme, they can bring it home.

“Last week St Mary’s Youth Club was going on a bus run so we provided a few boxes of fruit and sandwiches.”

Karen reiterated that everything Foyle Foodbank does was “in partnership with others”.

“We are trying to support people as best we can in communities,” she added. “While we have our base and our service here and we are extremely busy, we knew we would be going into the summer and supporting local groups with breakfasts and lunches, right across the city, from Curryneirin, Top of the Hill, Irish Street, Caw and Nelson Drive to Leafair, Creggan and Dove House.

“It is our way of trying to help families out. We know children would eat you out of house and home at the best of times.

“This year’s lunch summer scheme is a pilot scheme and we have received very positive feedback. We will see what we learn from it. Hopefully we will be able to do it for more areas next year.”

Karen explained that part of the foodbank’s role, as advocated by the Pathfinder initiative of the Trussell Trust, which supports the organisation, is to put an end to the need for foodbanks. “That is what we are working towards.”

She added: “When a person comes in our door, we look for the reason why and think about who else we can work with to support that person.

“We work with a wide range of organisations. We now make referrals out, which we didn’t do before, and organisations make referrals in.”

Denis McGowan emphasised Foyle Foodbank had moved away from being a reactive organisation, “a place where you went to get food if you were in crisis”.

He said: “Karen has introduced the whole proactive approach to the foodbank. We are now going out into the community and letting the community know the work we do. We are building trust with the community.

“The term foodbank has a stigma and part of Karen’s job is to destigmatise the foodbank. We are just one of many agencies who can help you when you are in difficulty.

“Foyle Foodbank is a trusted place you can come to and you will be well looked after.

“We put dignity at our core and the dignity of children is very high on Karen’s and our list. We treat people with dignity and compassion and understand where they are.

“We have recently employed a financial inclusion worker, thanks to funding from the Trussell Trust and we work in partnership with four advice services across the city and three credit unions.”

Denis observed Foyle Foodbank was seeing an increase in what he described as “the working poor”.

“No-one wants to tell you they are not earning enough,” he said, “but we are going through a cost of living crisis and people are experiencing mortgage increases of £300 to £400 a month.

“Karen is working in the community, trying to give a lead and get people, important voices, leaders in the community, to deal with this problem.

“This is a government problem. Foyle Foodbank is doing the government’s work. What country cannot feed its children? The Holiday Hunger payments continued in England and Scotland. Wales and here were the only places which discontinued them.”