Irish Cultural Center Fundraiser for COVID-19 Relief

Your donations are making a difference for local soup kitchens! Read on to see how important your contributions are.

Thanks to the generosity of our kind and caring community, the Irish Cultural Center was able to make donations of $275 to each of six soup kitchens in the Utica area.

• Mother Marianne’s West Side Kitchen
• Hope House
• Rescue Mission of Utica
• Rome Rescue Mission
• Salvation Army of Herkimer
• Salvation Army of Utica

We received a note from Ed Morgan, Director of Mother Marianne’s West Side Kitchen, telling us details of just how important and helpful donations are right now. In it, he said:

“You have no idea how much this is appreciated and needed at this time. With the COVID-19 social distancing, we have had to only give takeout meals to our guests. Take out containers and utensils for 4500 meals a month is almost $1,000. Our numbers are up about 7% for the past 4 weeks and I think that will continue for a while. Increased food costs and decreased donations from restaurants and colleges all affect how we can feed those in need. For an organization that is funded solely on donations, these are heavy unexpected costs.”

This is a vivid description of the extraordinary challenges all of our local soup kitchens are facing now.

And as the coronavirus quarantine continues, with its widespread business closures, the need for basic meals grows. That’s why the ICC Board of Directors has voted to extend our food drive.

Please donate whatever you can, knowing your contribution will ease the hunger of people in our own local area. And please share this post with your friends on social media, using the convenient Facebook and Twitter buttons below.

Here’s another idea to help spread the word: email the link for this page with a note to your friends asking them to join you in making a donation. Not everyone sees social media posts.