Charity focuses on healthy food for homeless

A call for Government measures to help people on low incomes to eat more healthily was made yesterday by Focus Ireland.

A call for Government measures to help people on low incomes to eat more healthily was made yesterday by Focus Ireland.

The charity for the homeless called for price control of vital foods and for sufficient welfare payments to ensure a healthy diet.

It has also urged the Government to carry out an investigation into what basic foodstuffs need to be included in the family basket to ensure a healthy diet.

During its "Eat Well Be Well" week Focus Ireland has been serving a different healthy menu each day at its low-cost restaurant, the Coffee Shop, in Temple Bar, Dublin, which provides affordable meals and housing support for homeless people.

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It has printed each day's menu so people using the service can learn how to make the meal themselves if they have cooking facilities in their emergency accommodation.

The chief executive of Focus Ireland, Mr Declan Jones, said: "The idea of the week is to show how people who have somewhere they can cook can eat a good diet at home. This is important, as there isn't a service like our coffee shop in every area around Dublin and the rest of the country."

However, he said, there were still many people who were homeless and living in emergency accommodation who had nowhere to cook or store food.

"So more needs to be done to ensure enough permanent housing is provided so they can cook meals at home like the rest of us," Mr Jones said.

The "Eat Well Be Well" week aimed to further promote health awareness, with an emphasis on nutrition and diet as well as information and advice on eating well for positive health.

Mr Jones called on the Government to introduce price control of vital foodstuffs and to ensure that welfare payments were sufficient for a healthy diet.

"We are calling on the Government to increase social welfare rates in the next Budget. This would allow a better standard of living for people who are homeless and all people who are struggling to survive on welfare," he said.

Focus Ireland was calling on the Government to immediately reverse the cuts in the diet supplement scheme and for it to meet its NAPS commitment to increase the minimum weekly welfare payment to €150 by 2007.

"These would be the first steps to help ensure that homeless and marginalised people could afford a basic and healthy diet," he said.