Newbridge Rotary Club supports local food bank

It’s 8.15 pm on a Friday in July. The Dining Room food bank has been open for less than an hour and already all the hot food is gone.

“We’ve been catering and budgeting for 45 people,” says Dolores Naughton. “But this running out of food early has been happening a lot lately. We’ll have to start planning for about 55 or 60.”

The volunteers operate the food bank two nights a week, offering hot meals and other essentials to people who are either homeless or struggling.

Dolores chairs the committee along with Catherine O’Donoghue, John Ryan and Tom O’Connor. There are up to a dozen additional volunteers who either cook or serve meals, or help in other ways.

Recently, The Dining Room has been assisted by the Rotary Club of Newbridge, which has raised much needed funding and equipment.

At a recent presentation of a cheque pictured above were (from left) Pat Brady and Peter Robinson (Rotary), Dolores Naughton and John Ryan (The Dining Room) and Maciej Krzetowski (Rotary).