Introduction

This chapter reviews responses to food poverty in Ireland, including the Government’s participation in the EU-wide FEAD and the United Nations’ SDGs relating to food insecurity. It investigates the role of the voluntary sector, where food charity is delivered through food banks and other forms of emergency food aid. This leads to an assessment of the overall response in Ireland, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and both the growth and trends in food charity across Europe. Emerging developments in support models are also considered and the conclusion summarises the key messages.

Responses to food poverty in Ireland

Responses from state

In recent years, the state’s response to food poverty has principally focused on the FEAD programme, which was set up by the EU in 2014 to support poverty alleviation measures undertaken by member countries. EU funding of over €3.8 billion, supplemented by national contributions, was made available to provide food and basic material assistance for the most deprived. In a further significant development, the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched in 2015, including a specific goal to end hunger and achieve food security (United Nations [UN], 2015).

FEAD has had a significant impact on the provision of food aid by facilitating voluntary sector involvement. The DSP is the designated managing authority for the operational programme in Ireland, which has a total value of €26.7m, including €4m from the Irish Exchequer (DSP, 2020b). The distribution of the fund is scheduled to end in 2022, when the EU will combine the current programme of food aid and material assistance with social inclusion measures. FEAD will then be incorporated into the European Social Fund Plus, which continues until 2027. Approximately 75 per cent of the current total FEAD funds are designated for the provision of food, with the remainder for basic material assistance (for example personal non-food items). The food is distributed through 154 charity organisations authorised by the DSP (as at May 2021), including charities with multiple approvals for different initiatives and locations – SVP (28), Barnardos (19) and Simon Community (4) (DSP, 2021a). Participating charities are required to report basic biographical information on users to DSP on a quarterly basis. In 2019, just over 195,000 people in Ireland received a total of 1,323 tonnes of food through the FEAD programme (DSP, 2020c).