Tonight was extremely chaotic, which you would’ve seen through the live stream earlier. There has been a high increase in the amount of children, families and people needing support. Every week we try and tend to the women and children first and the rough sleepers thereafter. Again, week in and week out, people are becoming agitated and start shouting. Some of them have been queuing up since 4.30pm and by the time we get to them is almost two hours later - after seeing to the women, children and elderly. We try and listen to everyone and try our best but tonight was really difficult. We were accused of only taking care of our own and allowing people to skip the queue. This evening the situation was extremely tense. Luckily we were able to make sure that everyone received a meal. You know how the old saying goes ‘organised chaos’ - tonight was really organised chaos. The majority of the people were grateful for everything we do for them. To meet people and get to know them on a personal level is absolutely lovely. We could write a book with the stories we could tell, but that book is a private book consisting of stories we will never disclose. Again, a huge shoutout to all the restaurants. To those who have helped us to be able to provide meals and allow us to reach this level of professionalism that our soup run is at. We can’t thank you enough. Even though we’re in our eighth year of facilitating the soup run, each week is heartbreaking and takes an emotional and mental toll. This is because we don’t see any improvement and things continue to become worse. We can’t continue with our work without your support. This week we provided just under 400 meals, fresh fruit and vegetables, pastries, yoghurts, drink, water, sleeping bags and hygiene bags. If you would like to help us or donate, please visit msoe.ie/donate/.