Your SVP Supporter Newsletter | Summer 2026
Bringing you closer to the real-life stories of people your donations help every day.
Every day, you give life-changing support.
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I never thought I’d need help putting food on the table. My family had always been OK, not comfortable but managing. Rent was high, bills kept creeping up, and once my daughter started school, everything got tighter. But we just kept going. Until one day we couldn’t.” …read Emily’s story inside
Also inside this issue:
Full stomachs and full hearts: Inside an SVP food bank
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Meet Paul, who gets all your donations to the right place
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Your amazing support gets more families back on their feet
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The impact of food poverty on families
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Hello and welcome to your SVP Stories newsletter! “ This summer, we wanted to highlight the incredible impact you are having by supporting SVP services. Summer holidays we often think of as a happy time. Unfortunately, the reality is that not having school lunches and breakfast clubs means added financial pressure and stress. With rent and other expenses rising, more and more people genuinely can’t afford to feed their children. Some of these people have never had to ask for support before. When they walk through the doors to us, some break down with relief. They can’t believe there’s someone willing to help. Thanks to your generosity, we can deliver life-changing help quietly, discreetly, and with dignity to anyone who needs it. You make it possible to ease the burdens that are keeping people awake at night.
It all starts with you. I hope you enjoy reading a bit more about how your compassion is changing lives. Thank you so much.”
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What counts in the end, plainly, is not only the quality of the service to the person in need, but the personal and selfgiving component of that service.”
– Frédérick Ozanam, founder of The Society of St. Vincent de Paul
In just three months, one Dublin food bank: • Supported 675 people locally • Delivered 1,500 food parcels – that’s 17 parcels a day • 500 of the people supported were children
Thank you for your remarkable support.
Teresa Ryan, National President, The Society of St. Vincent de Paul
“ You make sure that when people leave us, they are always better off than when they came.” – Nora, SVP food bank volunteer
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Your kindness is opening doors. Ballina Resource Centre Manager, Korene, explains how your help is the turning point for families on the brink. “Thanks to your amazing support, we have different programmes to set people up for the future. We bring in a retired chef as a tutor to help people learn to cook. We offer yoga classes to manage stress, and financial coaching to give people tools to budget and manage money. We’ve recently become a registered Rainbows Centre, with trained facilitators. This is a peer support programme for children who have gone through bereavement or parental separation. We have maths tuition for Leaving Cert students, run homework clubs and exam prep, and provide education bursary grants. Your donations to the food bank are life-changing.
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Education is such an important tool to change someone’s life so you’re really opening doors for people.”
So many people are living on the edge, just one unexpected issue away from serious hardship. The food bank gives a bit of breathing room so they can focus on other things. Sometimes the biggest thing we give isn’t the food, it’s the time. Listening to someone, letting them feel heard, can make a massive difference. The best outcome is when people don’t need us anymore. People will come back and tell us their children are flying, graduating college, and it started with support they got here. It’s not just helping one person – it’s generations. None of this would be possible without your amazing support and we cannot thank you enough for making more good stories possible every day.”
“ The food bank is incredibly cost-effective. We can give a family €150-200 worth of food for about €5-6. Your help goes so far.” – Korene, Ballina Food Bank Manager
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Your generosity keeps support in full flow. Paul, SVP Warehouse Manager, gives a behind-the-scenes look at how your donations find their way to the people who need them most. An SVP warehouse full of your amazing donations, ready to go.
“The warehouse acts as central hub for donations collected from SVP shops. Every day at 7.30 a.m., trucks begin collecting clothing, books, household items, and other donations to sort and redistribute. It’s a very fast-moving operation and there is a strong sense of purpose among the team.
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At the end of the day, it’s about getting the kindness of people like you to where it needs to go.”
All the shops have different communities, and the experience of the staff helps to make sure donations go where they can make the biggest impact.”
“Any items that cannot be resold are responsibly recycled. We won’t let your compassion and generosity go to waste! Donations also help wider community initiatives, providing essential clothing and household items to people experiencing hardship. When you hear about people getting what they need at the right time, that’s the best part. I wish everyone who donated could hear how much relief and happiness can come from the simplest thing. That’s what it’s all about.”
How you can help the most. Children’s clothing, good quality branded items, and men’s clothing are always in demand.
“ The help I got from SVP changed my life. We are no longer trapped. I actually feel hopeful now but we never would have got here without you. Thank you.” – Michelle, who used SVP services in the past
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You give dignity. “ Walking through the door of the food bank, I felt like I had failed. But the people were so warm. They told me that sometimes life just happens. That helped a lot. here was no judgement. No awkward T questions. Just people saying, “We’ll help you through this.” I walked out with bags of real food, things I hadn’t been able to afford for weeks. I felt like I could breathe for the first time in a long time.”
You give hope for the future.
You give families like Emily’s a safety net – and support to get back on their feet. “ Needing help was not something that happened to us all at once. It was small things at first. I switched brands in the supermarket and cut back on fresh food. I’d tell myself it was only temporary and next month would be easier. But it never got easier. I remember the first night we didn’t have enough food for dinner. That’s when the panic hit. I couldn’t bear the thought of my children going to bed hungry.”
“ But the support didn’t stop there. They helped me look at my bills, my budget, and where I could go for support. Slowly things started to change. I saw it in my kids first. They were happier, and their concentration in school improved too. It was more than the food that made the difference – it was not feeling alone. If you’re reading this, I just want you to know that what might seem like a small thing, a bag of food, a bit of support, can change everything. It did for us. Thank you.”
Emily So many more, like Emily, need your help. In January 2026, there were 17,112 people in homelessness, including 5,319 children. This is an increase of 1826 more people, and 716 more children, homeless than the same time last year. 5
The need is great – but so is your kindness. In parts of Dublin, food poverty is at 43% – nearly five times higher than the national average. Research looked at availability and affordability of food in the area to identify the biggest problems.
Affordability of healthy food was the biggest problem, followed by household bills and simply not having enough money. People commonly reported skipping meals or not eating for a whole day. Many families know how to eat well but simply can’t afford it.
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The people in the Food Bank are a lovely crowd, very helpful and you can ask them anything.”
– Naoise, SVP food bank user
Food poverty isn’t just being able to afford enough to eat – it’s about access to quality food and nutrition.
People using the food bank were able to eat more fruits and vegetables and less sugary and salty food – leading to longterm health benefits. Thanks to you, our wonderful volunteers at Blanchardstown Food Bank can make sure help is always on the way.
Making your kindness monthly
s Monthly Donor EGUL AR OUR LOYAL R GIVERS today changing lives and ever yday
If you are one of our amazing monthly donors, thank you so much for your loyal support. If you haven’t yet, would you be interested in making an incredible regular gift to help more people get the ongoing support they need – and help create vital pathways out of poverty? It’s so easy to do. Just fill in the reply form that came with this newsletter or go online to svp.ie/donate. Thank you for helping to change people’s lives.
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