When arriving at this resource centre, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re arriving at a regular housing estate. The resource centre blends in just like another house on the street apart from a subtle sign. This feels intentional so that people who benefit from their services feel as if they’re just popping over to a neighbour. As it happened, when I arrived, I was made to feel like a neighbour calling over for a cup of tea. Heather (CEO), Mary (Family Support Worker) and Maria (Nutritionist) all welcomed me and straight away you knew you were among friends but also consummate professionals. Listening to them tell me about their programmes, their impact and the challenges they encounter along the way, I couldn’t help but feel enormous gratitude for this small but mighty organisation supporting the Waterford community behind the scenes. 

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Core Programmes

The centre’s work is built on four central pillars designed to tackle systemic and immediate issues in the Waterford City community:

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Family Support: This one-to-one service provides stability for families experiencing significant hardship. It involves helping adults and often their children navigate crises, including separation, domestic abuse, coercive control, mental health issues and severe financial distress, ensuring they have the support needed to find their footing and get back on an even keel.

Early Years Service / Creche with the capacity for 70 children. This is a vital component providing reliable, accessible childcare, which enables parents to attend the centre’s courses, engage with social services, or return to work. The service avails of the government's Bia Blasta programme and is about to hire a cook to provide nutritious meals for the children. 

Healthy Communities (incl Cooking & Nutrition): Funded primarily by the HSE & led by the nutrition team, this programme focuses on food poverty and education. They teach budget-friendly cooking skills, ensuring families know how to maximize their resources to create healthy, sustainable meals at home.

Social Prescribing: This service is for adults over 18 and aims to combat social isolation. The centre connects individuals, from recently widowed and those in addiction recovery to newcomers in Ireland—with community activities like education courses or sports clubs. This helps participants build confidence, improve mental health, and reconnect with their community. As someone who moved to Waterford 5 years ago as a total ‘blow in’, I can completely relate to the need for this service and I was heartened to know that others have access to this amazing resource.

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There are 8 paid staff members (including 4 CE placements) supporting the delivery of this suite of programmes, albeit not all of them work full time. The early years service employs 19 members of staff. There’s also a voluntary board of directors who give oversight & direction. 

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The Impact of FoodCloud’s Partnership

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FoodCloud serves as a force multiplier for its resources. Rather than acting as a standalone service, it provides a consistent, reliable supply of food that allows us to support 8 core families per week with food parcels and between 60 and 80 families annually. The centre collects donations from Aldi every Monday and approximately 60% of the food packages and hampers they offer comes from what is collected at Aldi. This allows the team to focus on the long-term work of providing guidance and stability for the families. The centre also receives food from trolley appeals at Tesco 2-3 times a year which is thanks to the relationship formed when Sacred Heart FRC were in a position to collect weekly donations from Tesco. 

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When the FRC receives clothing and toiletries as part of their donations, they share these among their service users but also the women’s refuge and direct provision so the impact of what they receive goes well beyond the walls of their own centre. 

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Voices from the Community

"She said, no, I want it to go to somebody else because it was a life saver for me." (A single parent of 2 going through a recent relationship separation choosing to step aside from food support once she found part-time work, ensuring it could go to someone else in need).

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"It's a whole team thing... it's actually a real feel-good thing for us as an organisation to be involved in something like that." (On the collective effort behind creating hampers for families in need at Christmas time thanks to contributions from Tesco & Aldi as well as the children’s rights alliance who fund Christmas food initiatives for families ).

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"People would say ‘my children wouldn't have lunches going to school only for  FoodCloud’" (Family Support relaying feedback they’ve received from their clients)

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