To raise awareness of Ireland’s food poverty rates, charity Little Flower Penny Dinners hired In the Company of Huskies to show that hunger is an issue that never went away. With Famine Food Bank, Huskies installed a non-functional food bank beside the famous Famine Memorial, where people could donate a plate of food to Little Flower using a QR code.
The campaign launches this St Patrick’s week with an online video and on social platforms.
Situated on Dublin City Docklands, the Famine statues mark a time in Irish history when more than one million people died and a million more emigrated. Despite the notion that hunger was something that Ireland left behind way back in the 1800s, food poverty remains a major yet almost hidden problem. Over 100,000 children go to bed hungry every night.
One in five parents are said to skip meals to feed their families and the demand for food help increased by 70 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the cost of living soars, the numbers are likely to skyrocket. Since 1912, Little Flower Penny Dinners has given support, service and a place of welcome through providing 1,500 meals a week, every week.
The installation is a reminder that 173 years since the Irish famine, Ireland is still hungry.
Damian Hanley, creative director, Huskies said the great hunger didn’t just happen in 1847. “It happens at 18:47 every night. 100,000 children go to bed hungry. This famine statue is such an amazing memorial, but this idea shows that hunger is not a memory for many people,” he added. For more on Little Flower, visit https://www.littleflower.ie/
Watch the video at https://youtu.be/LUTHzL-Yjj8
