Opening of St Patrick's Soup Kitchen in Dundalk

Last Tuesday saw the official opening of the St Patrick’s Soup Kitchen at their newly refurbished premises at the former Accord building at Roden Place.

The Soup Kitchen originally opened over twenty years ago in the garage of Roden House and has been kept going by local volunteers in conjunction with the St Patrick’s parish.

The Kitchen offers a hot meal and tea or coffee to around seven or eight people a night, seven nights a week.

The new premises were made possible through the generous backing of local people and businesses, as Chairman Michale Finan explains:

“All of it was made possible by local people, Dundalk Credit Union and so many local businesses I couldn’t name them all.”

“We had to put an awful lot of money into the refurbishment of the Accord building because it was all small office units and we had to knock down internal walls and gut the inside and install fixtures like the kitchen.”

According to Michael, they provide food parcels to around one hundred people every week and he says this number has slowly started to increase.

“This time of year we get an awful lot of demand in the lead up to Christmas.”

“We’re really looking for funding this year for our Christmas hampers that we give out on top of the weekly parcels as well.”

Michaels says that financing the services is proving to be challenging this year and is appealing for any donations, either financial or of non-perishable items from those that are in a position to give.

“To be honest, at the rate we’re going at the minute, we wouldn’t be able to give out a Christmas parcel on top of the ordinary weekly one.”

“We’re a one hundred per cent nonprofit organisation with no backing from the government or outside organisations,” he said.

Any cash donations can be made by approaching a volunteer during the opening times, through the letterbox at the soup kitchen, or at the St. Patrick’s parochial house.

The Soup Kitchen operates in the new facility to the left of the car park of St. Patrick’s at Roden Place, Dundalk from 7-8pm on Monday -Saturday and from 5-6pm on Sundays.

The Food Parcels (a bag of basic essentials for those in need) are distributed on Fridays from 10am to 11.30am from the rear of the building (The door is just to the left of the gate as you enter the Parochial House car park.)