Hungry students are given food boxes

Date Published: 10-Jan-2013

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

Student leaders at one of the city’s third level colleges have begun handing out food boxes to impoverished students who are struggling to make ends meet due to delays in the payment of a new centralised grants system.

The Students’ Union at GMIT began handing out food parcels on Monday in response to an overwhelming demand from members who have yet to receive their first grant payment four months into the academic year.

Union leaders at both GMIT and NUI Galway have been taken aback by the scale of the financial difficulties experienced by students since they returned from the Christmas holidays, with many resorting to the Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP) to put food on the table or considering leaving education altogether.

The SU began distributing food boxes this month as figures from the new centralised Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) revealed that 28% of successful grant applicants were still waiting on their first grant payment of the college year.

Inefficiencies at SUSI, which took over new grant applications from local authorities such as Galway City Council, have left many students facing acute economic hardship.

“We have witnessed an extremely worrying increase in students who are coming to college at 9am in the morning and are unable to afford to pay for food in the college and are then waiting until they return home for their next meal, which in many cases is after 6 or 7pm,” said Joe O’Connor, President of the GMIT Students’ Union.

“It is shameful that we have been forced into this kind of action, but it has been happening in other colleges across the country for many months now, with an unexpected level of demand. If, through the provision of this service, we can allay somewhat the dire situation of students then it will prove worthwhile.”

He described the food box allocation as a “damage limitation exercise” and praised local businesses, including supermarkets in the Renmore and Mervue area, who had provided food free of charge because of the difficulties students were facing.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.