Amid the feverish consumerism that characterises Christmas, it seems almost inconceivable that there are people in Ireland who desperately need a small, donated hamper to help them put Christmas dinner on the table or provide presents for their children, writes Michael Kelly
But in the coming days, volunteers from the St Vincent de Paul, Ireland's largest volunteer organisation, will be delivering hampers to families all over Ireland.
"When we hear the word poverty," says John Monaghan, national vice-president of the SVP, "we think of Sudan, Darfur or Bangladesh. But there are more than 800,000 people in Ireland who live on an income equivalent to €202 per week. There are thousands of people who are regularly deprived of basic necessities like food and heat." Last year, the SVP spent €4.8m buying food to distribute to low income families.
Monaghan is a professor of mechanical engineering at Trinity College Dublin, but he calls his role with the St Vincent de Paul "all-consuming". "I was asked by a friend in Leixlip in the 1980s to help and you sort of get sucked into it." In addition to his role at national level, he will be helping to deliver more than 100 hampers to families in Leixlip in the coming days. "We lay out the boxes and stack them with minerals, mince pies, tins of beans, maybe a ham and a turkey if we can. We have a fleet of cars and vans that go out. What goes in to the hampers depends almost completely on the amount of money we get in. We get food donations from schools and 40 or 50 turkeys donated from companies in the area. Last year we had seven new bicycles donated to us. People are very good."
Crucially, the SVP goes about its work quietly. The hamper deliveries, for example, are carried out at night. "You have to ease people's embarrassment as much as you can, so the volunteers are people who know where to go but who also will forget very quickly where they have been. We try to offer support in a way that is non-judgemental.
"There are people coming back to us now who have fallen on hard times who we haven't seen in 10 years. I remember a time in the bad old days when we had to do a food delivery every Friday night in Leixlip. If we have to do that again, we will."
See www.svp.ie
Photograph: Cyril Byrne