Members of the village’s St Patrick’s Church of Ireland welcomed 32 people to their church hall on Friday 1 October when they raised over £ 200 for the international aid agency, Christian Aid Ireland.
The fundraising lunches are organized by a team of 12 parishioners who take turns preparing the soup and managing the event, supported by the rector, the Reverend Willie Nixon. There are usually four varieties of soups, which change from month to month.
The October event was hosted by Jacqui Bloomer, Rosemary Bunting, Cynthia Dorman, Joan Maguire, Ann McNally and Hazel O’Hara. The soups on offer were with lentils, mushrooms, vegetables and leeks and potatoes.
Simple church hall lunches of homemade soup served with bread and cheese have been a mainstay of Christian Aid’s fundraising for more than fifty years and have only been interrupted by the covid pandemic. The Drumbeg Lunch takes place from 12:15 p.m. on the first Friday of each month.
To comply with public health advice, Drumbeg volunteers have implemented table service rather than serving from a hatch as in the past. The diners wear a mask until they are seated at a table.
Helen Newell, Church and Community Leader for Christian Aid Ireland, attended the Drumbeg lunch to thank the organizers and guests for their support.
She said, “We are grateful to Reverend Nixon and all the organizers for their hard work, as well as everyone who attended to support the event. The Drumbeg Lunch comes at a time when Christian Aid Ireland is helping those on the front lines of the global hunger crisis – a hunger that is exacerbated by conflict and climate change.
The next Drumbeg Soup Lunch will be on Friday, November 5th from 12:15 p.m. and everyone is welcome.
To help Christian Aid Ireland reach more hungry people, please visit caid.ie/Hunger or call 028 9064 8133 to donate.
