Offaly county councillor Ken Smollen
This morning.
Offaly county councillor and chair of the Irish Democratic Party Ken Smollen, who runs a food delivery service for impoverished families, received the following message from a Laois mum whose identity he is protecting on Facebook
“Hi Ken I am very sorry to message and ask could you please please help me anyway you can with food, I am a single mother with a baby almost a year old.
“I’m private renting at the moment.. I’m paying €180 of my €234.50 a week on rent, and the remaining €54.50 goes between formula baby food nappies and electric.
“My child’s father is supposed to pay €20 maintenance a week, I’ve never seen a cent of it. At present I haven’t eaten more than a slice of stale bread and a tin of soup myself in three days.
“I will go without to make sure my daughter can eat. Anyway if you could please help me any way you could I’d be very very grateful.
“It is eating me having to message you to ask but I can’t ask anyone else. SVP told me this week they can’t help me until September as they take holidays for all of August over here.
“I see you visited Laois yesterday so I hope you wouldn’t see it too far to be able to help me any way possible. Thanks very much.”
Earlier: The First Steps