Next time you’re in a crowd, take a look at the people around you. Chances are, more than you think have struggled at some point to afford healthy food.
Safefood research from last year found nearly half a million people in the Republic, or 9 per cent of the population, were living in food poverty.
Another recent study by a Dublin charity concluded that close to half of its catchment in Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard had fallen into the category. The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) said it received 112,772 requests for food assistance last year, up 8,548 since 2024.
Eilis Davenport, founder of Learn Local, a social enterprise bringing cooking skills into primary schools, says she works with many children who are living in temporary accommodation or family hubs.
“The babies in buggies are eating instant noodles at nine o’clock in the morning outside the school. You never know what somebody is going through. It’s so important to try and empathise on every single level,” she says.
A former fine dining pastry chef, Davenport grew up in Ballymun and left school at 16, when she was encouraged by her local youth club to enrol in a culinary skills course. She feels “lucky” that she had already learned much about cooking from her grandmother, who was an “incredible cook”.
Training in pastry, she worked in the fine dining world for several years but the evening hours became too difficult with children.“Once my children started at school I saw there was no education about food or cooking in schools, so I wanted to build something around that.”
In the Learn Local classes Davenport brings her cooking equipment (including hobs) into schools in the north inner city, Tallaght, Ballymun and Finglas. Most of the schools involved fall under the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (Deis) programme, so they receive extra State supports.
The classes start with a basic soup and bread recipe. Week two is eggs: scrambled and French toast. Later lessons include making spaghetti bolognese and a stir fry. The schools vary in what they can provide on site.
“I’m coming at it from a skills perspective. The health comes in then and the food literacy, but it’s about giving them the skills to cook,” she says.
The classes are funded via a mix of State funding, school payments and private business sponsorships.
“Deis schools really struggle with funding and they are the schools we want to be in. It’s about trying to lift children out of food insecurity. You’re trying to give those kids the skills so that when they are teenagers they can do a bit more for themselves, especially when maybe their parents can’t.”
Schools and parents have told Davenport that some children in her classes have become more vocal and developed stronger fine motor skills. Some have learned to use a knife for the first time.
Yvonne Fleming, senior manager for Crosscare Community Services on Dublin’s Portland Row, says she has seen an increasing number of working people who need food supports.
Crosscare offers a food parcel collection and does work in Finglas, Jobstown and Portland Row, where there is also a community cafe.
In the Crosscare cafe, open from Monday to Friday, clients can buy a three-course meal for €5. Last year the cafe served 12,500 low-cost meals.
“We have a range of people eating here; some are older and retired people who might come in from other areas as they have free travel with the bus pass,” says Fleming.
“We also are seeing younger people who are in jobs. They are coming in wearing lanyards … We are dealing with more families with two incomes [who are] not able to make ends meet.”
Fleming says clients are assigned a case worker who assesses their income, outgoings, loans and energy payments, trying to find savings. The clients can access free food and household items, but the “aim is to get them back on their feet”.
“For some it’s a four-week relationship; for some it’s longer,” she says.
One father says he contacted Crosscare six months ago having already used food parcels for about two years. “My partner wasn’t able to work, and we had two small children in school. We were behind on rent, had a credit union loan, and struggled to afford necessities,” says the man, who does not want to be named. This put a strain on his relationships, but the provision of food and help with budgeting made a significant difference, he says. With Crosscare’s advice he switched energy provider, restructured loans, got a medical card and secured social welfare for his partner. “Within months, we could afford our own food shop. I can’t describe how much stress I was under at that time,” he says.
Anne Fitzgerald, chief executive of the Liffey Partnership community organisation in Ballyfermot, says the demand for food supports has “massively increased”, with people now living on less money.
Liffey Partnership, which delivers programmes aimed at reducing poverty and promoting social inclusion, conducted research into food poverty in the Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard areas of Dublin in 2024 and 2025. It found a food poverty rate of 43.3 per cent, nearly five times higher than the State average. More than two in five people in the community said they were experiencing food poverty.
“We were shocked that in such a wealthy country people are choosing to heat their house or eat,” she says, adding that the research came before the war in Iran pushed up the price of fuel and energy. “We hear this phrase ‘heat or eat’ from many people, especially the elderly. And there’s a lot of worry about this coming autumn and winter.”
The Liffey Partnership study mapped the areas’ supermarkets, convenience stores, takeaways, food banks and services.
“In Cherry Orchard the research found a large proportion of people haven’t a supermarket within one mile of where they live. Many don’t have cars… They end up buying groceries in smaller convenience shops, which are much more expensive,” says Fitzgerald.
“There’s this narrative that if people knew better they would do better. But the truth is that more people just have less money; they are struggling and having to make choices.”
The Liffey Partnership and several other community groups recently formed the Dublin 10 Food Alliance, which has plans to open a community kitchen for cooking classes and shared meals. It is also looking at developing a community-owned grocery shop.
“We have some funding from HSE and other departments but we are in the early stages …We talk about child poverty but no child has control over money; this is about family poverty and family income, which is not now enough to meet needs,” says Fitzgerald.
One client of the Liffey Partnership, who does not want to be named, says she began struggling after having a baby and having to stop work. “Food prices started going up and gas and electricity went up. I used to do prepay electricity. That was €20 a week and that went up to €50/€60,” she says.
The mother of two does one big weekly shop for about €100. “All the healthy food I find is really expensive. Meat has gone through the roof so I don’t buy that, but I get frozen stuff.“ She says it was hard to ask for help from a food bank. ”So many people are going through what I am going through. I don’t think the Government understands one tiny bit. They don’t see people struggling.”