IT'S 6.55pm on a Friday evening in Belfast and there's a queue on Donegall Street.
To a passer-by, it is not an unusual sight given the number of popular clubs and bars in the area. However those queuing aren't waiting in line to enjoy a night out, they are queuing for food to survive.
It may be one of Belfast's oldest and historic streets, where a soup kitchen may once have been suitably located in bygone times, but not what you expect to see in 2019.
Among those in the queue are rough sleepers, tightly clutching their sleeping bags while they wait for a hot meal, perhaps their first and last for days.
However the homeless are not the only ones who depend on this life-saving facility.
Incredibly there are also mothers with young children and babies in prams, who have found themselves on the poverty line, struggling to feed their family due to changes in welfare
reform.
There are also pensioners steadying themselves on zimmer frames, hoping for a food parcel and a perhaps a bit of company for a while, and also young girls, who as teenagers have left home for one reason or another and are facing the harsh reality of being on their own for the first time.
Inside the soup kitchen, founder Paul McCusker is briefing his team of 50 volunteers on the night ahead.
The menu is set - shepherd's pie and chicken curry among the offerings this evening - while the clothes bank has been sorted and the tables are laid.
The homeless advocate, who is also an SDLP councillor in north Belfast, speaks to the volunteers about safety - a number of needles were found on the premises last week - and reminds them that aggression from users will not be tolerated before wishing them luck, while all the time, the front door is being banged by those eager to get in to eat
When the door is finally opened, a tsunami of people from all walks of life flood the soup kitchen. While some head directly to the clothes bank to find essentials, others read the menu and choose a hot meal.
Among those seeking support this night is a man aged in his eighties, who doesn't want to be named because he is "shy".
He said he comes to the soup kitchen both for food and also for the company.
Given to an orphanage as a baby, he reveals he has no family and only one friend. It is not unusual for him to go days'swithout speaking to anyone else.
He says he would be lost without the facility and it's thanks to the donations from the public that he is able to eat and when he leaves. He hangs a food parcel from his zimmer frame, happy in the knowledge that he has enough to see him through to the following weekend.
Also through the door is a mother-of-eight who has two children, aged two and five.
Aged 44, she does not want to be named as her family in the Republic, might see she has fallen on hard times.
She reveals she is only able to feed her family thanks to the weekly food parcel she gets from St Patrick's and brings her children weekly so they enjoy a hot meal.
"I do look forward to getting it," she said.
"It's hard midweek. This service is very, very good".
Such is the number of babies and children who use the facility, the volunteers have created a play area in the main room away from the hustle and bustle, so families can eat together and enjoy play in the heat, warmth and safety of the soup kitchen.
Volunteers, who also go out into the community to deliver emergency food parcels, reveal some of the moving scenes they come across include families living with no electricity.
One volunteer reveals she calls herself the `Tesco lady' when she calls at the home of a young family in north Belfast to deliver food so the two children don't know she is from a food bank.
Amid all the hustle and bustle, in the background an army of 50 volunteers work to prepare food parcels, make meals and sort donated bags of clothes for those in need.
At the clothes bank volunteer Rosaleen Beattie, from the Oldpark area, helps people as best she can, sorting clothes by size and style, always thinking about those she knows who will need certain things.
In a back room, volunteer Bronagh Young is sorting tins of food, helping prepare essentials.
Among the requests tonight are for toothpaste and bed socks.
Despite the harrowing stories emerging, looking around the room, there is laughter and smiles at the tables as friends catch up with each other, leaving their troubles at the door for a few hours.
There are no questions asked of those who show up at this facility. They do not have to give their name or any personal details or produce any paperwork. They are simply supported and provided with what they need.
As more people arrive, there is a commotion near the door and it emerges a man in his 20s has overdosed in the toilets.
I'm told, this is unfortunately, nothing new - there were three overdoses the previous weekend.
While no alcohol or drugs are allowed to be brought on the premises, if someone has already taken something, nothing can be done.
Staff assist the man and call an ambulance and watch as he is driven off to hospital and then it is back to work because those in need will keep turning up at the door of St Patrick's Soup Kitchen for the foreseeable future, and the volunteers will continue to help them.
It has been an emotional and difficult night for all concerned but tomorrow the volunteers will return and do it all again because without them, those most at risk in the community would be totally lost.
**Donations including non-perishable food, toiletries and clothing can be dropped off to St Patrick's Soup Kitchen on Donegall Street, beside St Patrick's Church, between 7pm and 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Arrangements can also be made for donations to be picked up. Contact Paul McCusker on 07467 339637.
