“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”

A GoFundMe page set up by the UCC Students’ Union met and smashed its target in just one afternoon after news of the SU food bank running out of food went viral.

The story began yesterday when UCC SU Welfare Officer Caoimhe Walsh shared an image online of a sign in the food bank window which read “We have run out of food, sorry” and urged hungry students to contact Walsh. According to Walsh, the food bank ran out of food in 48 minutes after opening at 5pm on Wedneday, having just been restocked.

Heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/Lx4uPXwsbB

— Caoimhe Walsh (@UCCSUWelfare) October 6, 2021

The SU then set up a GoFundMe page with a target of €5,000 – and 10 hours later it has raised no less than €6,570, a figure which is still climbing as of Thursday morning.

“UCC Students’ Union relaunched its food bank this week in response to the chronic financial hardship our students are experiencing as a result of the accommodation crisis, rising rents and costs of living associated with being a student,” the union said in a statement.

“This is the seriousness of the situation we are currently in not only in Cork but in this country as we had over 100 students attend our Food Bank this evening.

‘It was heartbreaking to not have enough for students who came afterwards, to have to turn them away and to see the amount of students living with food insecurity.”

If you want to donate to the UCC SU food bank you can do so here.