ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support

ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support is designed to support Member States in addressing the basic needs of the most deprived people in our community. It is funded by ESF+ under the Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training Programme.

This support is for people without access to income or living in very poor circumstances.

The support will work with not-for-profit organisations to provide food and basic material assistance.

ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support will help people take their first steps out of poverty and social exclusion by addressing some of their most basic needs.

The focus of the fund will be on those on the margins of society and in need of essential supports.

Effectively, the support will target:

• homeless persons including long-term rough sleepers
• children in low income/work intensity households
• victims of domestic violence in refuges and shelters
• persons suffering or recovering from addictions
• certain members of the Roma and Traveller communities
• vulnerable persons transitioning to independent living from emergency accommodation, institutionalised care settings or places of detention
• any person without income, accommodation or means not otherwise defined above

The focus of the food operation will be on those on the margins of society in need of essential food support.

It will ensure a reliable supply of food to approved partner organisations nationwide over the life of the ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support Programme, with the approved organisations collecting food products from three regional hubs in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

Food will be made available to all eligible organisations from an approved food schedule compiled by the Department of Social Protection following consultation with the charitable sector. The food items consist of basic, non-perishable foods which are easy to transport and store.

To access this operation an organisation should send the form at the bottom of this page to SMD@welfare.ie

The following is the process for organisations joining the operation for the national availability of food:

• charity applies to the department by emailing SMD@welfare.ie
• this department reviews the application and raises any queries with the charity
• after the charity responds to any queries, this department confirms whether the charity is eligible for the ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support Programme
• if the charity is eligible, it must then sign the consent form to confirm that the charity’s contact details can be shared with FoodCloud Hubs. They must also sign and return the Service Level Agreement.
• this department confirms the credit allocation for the charity to FoodCloud based on the number of individuals being assisted and the level of support provided
• FoodCloud issues a product order form to the charity
• the charity orders product for their beneficiaries and states how regularly they would like to collect the product (weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly)
• FoodCloud will confirm a date for the charity to collect from one of the hubs in Cork, Dublin or Galway
• the charity will collect regularly from FoodCloud and must have a stock control policy and carry out regular reviews of stock on hand and amend orders with FoodCloud Hubs (the National Partner Organisation) as demand requires
• the charity must retain records on who receives the ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support product and complete quarterly reports to this department on the age, gender, background and if the recipients fall into specific categories
• the charity in receipt of ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support Product will include on their website (if they have one) a short paragraph describing the ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support operation, it's aims, results and highlight the financial support of the EU.

If you are not happy with the decision on your application for the ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support programme you can submit an appeal in writing to SMDAppeals@welfare.ie

The full list of charities in receipt of ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support is available here.

For further information, contact:

ESF+ Food and Basic Material Support is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union. Visit eufunds.ie for more information.

The ESF+ Food & Basic Material Support is a continuation of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) programme in Ireland which ended in 2022.

The EU Commission are conducting an ex-post evaluation of the 2014-2020 Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) programme.

This online public consultation is open to all stakeholders and citizens to participate.

To take part you will have to register with EU Login. It should only take a few minutes to complete the survey.

You can access the evaluation survey here.

The closing date for receipt of replies is Wednesday 8 May 2024.

FEAD Evaluation Report

Learn about how ESF+ have partnered with Food Cloud to make food support available to over 150 charities around Ireland.