Penny Dinners to feed 1,000 on Christmas Day
As families prepare for a festive feast on Christmas Day, Catriona Twomey is gearing up to provide food for over 1,000 people who will depend on Cork Penny Dinners for their meal.
“At the best of times Christmas can be tough, but this year it’s extremely hard. It’s meant to be a time of full and plenty, but the cost of living crisis has filtered across all walks of life, and the demand here has risen hugely. We see more and more people coming, especially people who are working.”
“By the time they pay the mortgage and bills, they have nothing left for food. They are finding it really difficult to cope. The food is what suffers because they think they will get by without that,” she said.
Christmas Day will be exceptionally busy this year, but Catriona says that there will be a meal available for anyone who needs it. “Our centre will be open for people to come, we will have the High Hopes Choir, Barracks Street Brass Band and guest singers. Everybody will get dinner courtesy of the River Lee Hotel; they will be cooking for us, Rory and his staff there are outstanding,” she said.
“We will be delivering to people who are isolated and who can’t get to us, we have 400 on that list alone. We will do takeaways on Hanover Street, and there’s also people that come and sit down, so we would expect over 1,000. We will be giving hampers as well.”
"We don’t want people to be struggling on Christmas Day not having food, that’s the worst scenario anyone could think of,” she continued.
Catriona says she is grateful to everyone involved in the operation, who collectively brighten Christmas for the many people in need.
“The volunteers on the ground here and the core team, they are so strong and dedicated; they go above and beyond, they are incredible to work with, I love them to bits. For all of us it is a privilege to be of service to our fellow human beings. We’ve seen that look in their eyes, and we have to do what we do. No-one goes hungry on our watch," she said.
She also has a special mention for the people of Cork, who have been consistently generous to Penny Dinners down through the years. “Everybody looks after us. It’s because of all of them that the miracle on Little Hanvover Street happens every day. But at Christmas it’s a bigger miracle and we can never thank people enough for what they do, for their thoughtfulness and kindness,” she says.
With her dedication to caring for so many others on Christmas Day, will she have an opportunity to relax and partake in festive celebrations herself? “We have to see it through and we are all committed to that,” she says.
“But I expect to be home by 4.30pm. I’m going to my daughter’s house for dinner, she is a fabulous cook. Instead of everybody coming to my house and I’m panicking, we are going to hers, and that’s a great feeling,” she added.