Saint Vincent de Paul in Wicklow on food price rises and how they help local families

Irish Independent

2 days ago

David Loane, who is SVP area president for Wicklow and covers the region from Bray down as far as Arklow, said the 'cost of living is certainly a much bigger issue this year'.
Where energy bills were the biggest challenge in recent years, particularly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, he said 'we're noticing a lot more people now looking for help with food – just food, basic food".
'If you just look at the basic basket of food – meat, butter, cheap dairy, bread – all of those items have gone up significantly in the past 12 months,' David said. 'While the Consumer Price Index (CPI) produced a rate of inflation which looks as if it's okay, it just doesn't reflect what's happening in the shopping basket,' he added.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) last week confirmed the rate of food inflation since June last year has been higher than the general rise in prices across the economy. Food inflation rose by 4.6pc, more than double that of the general CPI, which rose by 1.8 per cent in the same period.
For example, the national average price of full fat milk per two litres was up 27 cents, butter rose by €1.10 per pound and the average price of Irish cheddar per kilogramme increased by 95 cents. A white sliced pan increased by six cents in the year to June 2025.
"We're seeing a much wider spectrum of people contacting us,' David continued. 'Typically in the past we've had people who were on low income, people on low social welfare or social protection payments, who run into an unexpected crisis like the washing machine breaks or whatever, and we'd have to help them out.
'But now we're seeing people who traditionally you would have thought should be okay because they're earning a reasonable wage. But they're struggling. It's definitely the food, the increase in price of food, which has suddenly catapulted over the past 12 months.
'Now a lot of people are reducing the amount they're buying and they're maybe going for less branded goods to try and cut down on the cost. Certainly the requests we're getting are more and more for help with food vouchers.'
Food vouchers are the donation of choice and have replaced the traditional food parcels, so people can make their own decisions as to what they buy. The SVP still has to buy the food vouchers, and some supermarkets give a discount of 5pc, but it's not enough to meet the demand.
"Probably that's about the extent of what we get in terms of help from the main supermarkets on the voucher of buying it,' David said, adding that the levels of donation in recent years to the society has taken a hit too, 'because people don't have the money to give, or they're trying to spread it around to other deserving charities as well'.
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Aside from handing out food vouchers, imparting advice is also a big part of what the SVP volunteers do, as a way of helping struggling families budget better.
'If people are struggling and there's very little food, we don't think twice about it, we just give them vouchers. Now, if they're consistently coming back to us, we may then do a more in-depth analysis of what's going on. Because we can't afford to become another branch of the Department of Social Protection in handing out kind of weekly help. We'd be out of money fairly quickly.
"We go and meet them and chat to them and see, first of all, if we can help them with the budgeting side of their income. So what are they spending their money on? And is there a better way that they can budget? And many of them are very open to that.
'Typically this time of the year, we would see a dip in the request for help, you know, kids are off school, summer months, and things would quiet down. But things haven't quietened down this summer. I'd say requests for help are up about 20pc. I think that graph is continuing to project upwards.
'I read a recent quote recently where someone described it quite accurately – you could see two cars in the driveway, but nothing in the fridge. It's the unseen poverty that's going on, where people are really struggling. And because they're working, they don't think they should ever contact the Society of Vincent DePaul. But actually, they need as much help as some of the people we are helping.'
David added that very often, 'the complexity of the request for help can be quite distressing'.
The Government's 'ongoing failure' to tackle the cost of groceries was recently highlighted by Wicklow Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, who warned families across the county 'are being left behind while supermarket giants continue to profit'.
'Since 2021, grocery prices have risen by a staggering 36pc,' she told the Dail on Wednesday, July 9. 'That's an extra €3,000 a year on the average family's food bill. This is not just inflation, it's a crisis,' she said.
'Every family in Wicklow is feeling the pinch. They know exactly what they're sacrificing from their household budgets just to keep food on the table. And yet, the Government continues to sit on its hands. In 2023, the Government promised to get a handle on this issue. The minister talked tough and said prices would come down. That hasn't happened. Families are still waiting.'
Her party brought forward a proposal to seek more transparency, to find out 'who is making the profits, and on whose backs'.
'We called on the Government to regulate the big profit-makers just a little more. To put in place basic transparency measures so we can see where the money is going and why prices are rising. This isn't about small corner shops or local retailers. It's about the five major supermarket chains in Ireland, Dunnes, Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, and SuperValu,' she said.
"The grocery sector is worth €15bn. It's an incredibly profitable industry. And yet, the Government refuses to ask these giants to publish even the most basic data. They refuse to step up to the plate and demand accountability.'
David believes there could be some assistance provided by the State but unlike where one-off payments were given in the past to help with energy bills across the board, 'they could target the people who really need it the most'.