The Transition Year students would like to thank everyone who generously donated to their food appeal which took place last week.
According to figures published by the Department of Housing last month, the number of homeless people has unfortunately risen for a 9th month in a row. It is now at a record high of 10,975 people. (When we did this collection in October 2021, the figure was 8,830.)
In addition to collecting food at school, the 32 TY students involved in this project spent a day working in Swords Central and Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre. They waited outside Dunnes Stores, SuperValu and Penneys with a trolley. They asked the shoppers going in to buy one item of food or clothing for the homeless. The campaign was a great success and here is small sample of what we collected:
– 14,360 tea bags
– 166kg of pasta
– 311 tins of food
– 337 packets of crisps
– 70 jars of pasta sauce
– 130 packets of biscuits
– 1,583 nappies
– 465 sanitary items
– 419 pairs of socks
– 147 hats
– 193 pairs of underwear
– 107 pairs of gloves
The TY students would like to thank the management of Swords Central, Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre, SuperValu, Dunnes Stores and Penneys for facilitating the event. Penneys also very kindly donated two boxes of clothes to us as well.
All items were donated to the soup kitchen “Friends helping Friends.” “Friends helping Friends” are a soup kitchen based on Westmoreland Street every Tuesday and Sunday night. They provide hot meals, hot drinks, snacks, sandwiches and clothes for up to 400 men, women and children every night. The soup kitchen is run entirely by volunteers and they rely 100% on donations of food and clothing from the public.
For more information on this organisation and the work they do, please click the links below.
https://www.facebook.com/friendshelpingfriendsDub/
https://www.facebook.com/friendshelpingfriendsDub/videos/448111389188384
