‘It will be very busy’: Capuchin centre prepares to distribute thousands of Christmas hampers

Small numbers of people, almost all women, queued outside the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin on Monday for bags of nappies and baby food from the last weekly distribution of essential infant products before Christmas.

The scene was very different to that of last Wednesday, when the centre had to stop handing out tickets for Christmas hampers after thousands turned up at its Bow Street premises. People had started queuing from 4am in extremely cold temperatures to collect the tickets, which can be redeemed from the centre from 8am on Tuesday. Gardaí attended to disperse the crowds due to the enormous numbers that had gathered by mid-morning along the narrow street.

“I was here last week and it was crazy,” said one woman who was waiting to collect nappies and milk formula on Monday. “Today is normal, it’s just like any other week, but I couldn’t get over last week. I got here early enough last Wednesday and I got a ticket, so I’ll be back tomorrow.”

With five children, two of whom are still in nappies, the woman said visiting the centre has become part of her weekly grocery shop.

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“The nappies are great to get, but it’s mainly the formula, the price of it has just gone through the roof. The box I’m getting here gets me to Saturday, then I’ll buy another one and that gets me to the next time I’m here.”

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Several women raised the cost of milk formula as a problem. The tubs distributed by the centre retail for €16.49 each in a nearby discount supermarket. “I come here just because of the formula,” said one woman from Zimbabwe who has recently arrived in Ireland with two small children. “I am new to Ireland, but it was one of the things I was really surprised by. The cost of the formula is very, very, very expensive here.”

One older woman, who has been coming to the centre for years, said she was collecting baby food and nappies on behalf of her daughter.

“I’ve been coming here every Monday for years. I have five grandchildren so we couldn’t do without it.”

Centre manager Alan Bailey said it usually sees about 150 people coming each Monday and queuing for baby products.

“It’s a regular number of people, mainly women, they mostly come around 10.30am when they’ve got the older ones to school,” he said.

The numbers visiting would be very much greater for the Christmas distribution on Tuesday, he said. “We allocated 3,000 tickets for tomorrow. We’ll start at 7.30am-8am and will finish up by 12pm. It will be very busy but we’ll manage it and the gardaí will be here doing crowd control.”

Mr Bailey said he was taken aback by the numbers who arrived to collect tickets last week.

“I’ve been here 50 years and I’ve never seen it like this,” he said. “I’m seeing people I’d never expected to see here, but they are under such pressure now that the least bit of extra expense can be too much, and Christmas is just that extra expense people can’t afford.”