A woman who took a photo of a four-year-old girl, eating her only hot meal of the day while sitting on a crate in Dublin, has said such scenes should not be happening.
The picture posted by the Ballymun Soup Run group has gone viral.
The group simply captioned the photo: "Our Government are to blame for this".
"It's so normal that they pop down for dinner it's sad. No cooking facilities what option has mammy got, chippers are bad everyday for young children. And not cheap either", they added.
Jeri Byrne took the photo. She told Josh Crosbie for The Pat Kenny Show the child has been using the service since September.
"They come from all different walks of life - we have people in emergency accommodation, that's where the children would come from, they come down with their mammies.
"They only thing they have in their bedroom is a kettle, so the only way they feed the children is out of chippers and stuff.
"We would usually make a coddle, a stew, a chicken curry, chicken pasta bake - anything that we think of, we just change it up every week."
On the photo, she said: "The child in the photo is four years of age, she uses the service every week.
"She has been using the service since September since we started up.
"So I'm not sure before then, how long she's in homeless accommodation - but she's been there since as long as September as far as I know."
our government are to blame for this 😡
Posted by Ballymun Soup Run on Sunday, April 11, 2021
She added that families just need to get out of their one room accommodation.
"It's very sad, it's sad that they don't have a kitchen table to even sit at and eat.
"They sit in their bedrooms and eat off their beds.
"Sometimes they don't sit at the soup run, sometimes they will bring it up to the rooms.
"But sometimes they just like to get get out of the room for a while, because it's just one bedroom - a bed, and that's it.
"I just think it shouldn't be happening, I don't think any child should have to come down to a soup kitchen and sit on a crate or sit the ground and have their dinner there."
Babies and pensioners were among the hundreds of people at soup runs in Dublin last night.
Hear from the volunteers and those using the services on @PatKennyNT in the next few minutes. pic.twitter.com/fObiP5Fyf1— Josh Crosbie (@JoshCrosbie3) April 20, 2021
Dougie from the Éire Nua Food Initiative said they are seeing higher demand.
"We set up here at 6.30, give or take a few minutes, and we'll feed anybody that's in need of food.
"People form hostels, the hotels, the B&Bs - they don't have the facilities most of the time in the hostels."
Commenting on a queue of more than 50 people, he said: "This is an average night - by the end of the night, we'll have served over 200 people.
"I have 200 hot meals there, they'll be well gone".
One of the users of Éire Nua Food Initiative's services in Dublin city centre. Picture by: Josh CrosbieAnd Dougie said they are seeing more children in need of their food.
"On Easter Monday I counted seven prams, so that was seven toddlers, seven children barely able to walk - along with maybe another 20 or 30 other children with their parents queueing up.
"I know the photograph from last week it's very emotive, and when it comes out it's kind of 'Jesus, we didn't know that'.
"But it's an everyday occurrence here".
