Potato growers from across Cork came together in an initiative to support St Vincent de Paul for the Christmas season and on Tuesday, December 20th presented a €3,000 cheque to them at their premises in Blackpool, as well as approximately 3 tons of potatoes, donated by growers from around the county, including many from The Avondhu area.
The move came about after the charity’s appeal for help from the public for their Christmas campaign for Cork’s poor. The growers responded after the charity revealed it has had a 10% increase in requests for help this year.
Under the initiative, the growers donated 20 cent from the sale of every bag of potatoes that carried the “Cork Pototo Growers Support SVP” sticker. The potatoes were for sale in various shops throughout the county and still are, so you can still contribute to this worthy cause.
20,000 bags of Cork-grown potatoes were for sale throughout the county as part of the campaign and growers were delighted to make this contribution to them. The growers thank the public for supporting this worthy cause during the festive season.
Campaign organiser, David Flynn, Fermoy said: “When I heard the recent appeal by St Vincent de Paul, I felt there must be something that we as a group of local food producers could do to help other people in our community. We then came up with this idea, which guaranteed that when people shop local this Christmas, they were supporting their local community.”
Brendan Dempsey said: “Last year in Cork, we spent €2.1 million on food. What the Cork potato growers are doing for us is an enormous help and we really appreciate it. Supporting local industry is the way out of the tough times.”
