Kerry Foods rows in behind family resource centres, giving vital donations of food from its famous Listowel plant
KERRY Foods has stepped up to the plate in no uncertain fashion as the community and business response to COVID privations grows ever greater.
Through Kerry Community Champion David Fitzgibbon, the multinational’s Listowel home plant has now come on board with the work of local family resource centres in getting food to the locked-down homes of those most in need.
Now, the famous brand is sending out some of its daily output from Tanavalla to homes across North Kerry with the regular meal deliveries North, East and West Kerry Development (NEWKD) and the Listowel and Ballyduff Family Resource Centres are currently mounting.
“In my capacity as Kerry Community Champion, I was contacted recently by Damian Lynch, Quality Lead with Kerry Foods in Listowel. He had seen the reports of the work of both Listowel Family Resource Centre and Buds Family Resource Centre in Ballyduff, and the work they were doing in providing meals and food hampers to cocooned older people and low-income families and clients in the area, supported by NEWKD who are delivering a huge number of meals and hampers in Listowel and North Kerry,” David Fitzgibbon said.
“Damian said that Kerry Foods would be delighted to support the work by donating food from its factories across the county and beyond as part of their efforts to support the community in this time of need.”
Kerry Foods operations manager John Curran said he was thrilled to present the food on behalf of all of the staff in the Listowel factory: “Kerry Foods is delighted to support the great work being done in the community at this very challenging time in Ireland. I would like to thank both NEWKD and the Family Resource Centres for their work and for the care that they are providing to the most vulnerable members of our community.”
NEWKD Chairman John Stack thanked Kerry Foods for its generosity in providing essential provisions to support the vital work being undertaken at this time, thanking the staff of NEWKD and the family resource centres for their work.
Listowel Family Resource Centre CEO Jackie Landers said: “This is a time of great difficulty for our community, and we are all determined to do what is required to ensure that those that need our help get the supports and services that they need at this time. The contribution of Kerry Foods and the ongoing support on NEWKD are hugely important to the work that we are all engaged in.”
The food donated by Kerry Foods was taken to Listowel FRC, where both Listowel and Buds FRC unloaded what they needed to support their work on meals on wheels and hampers.
All the rest of the food was transported to Foodshare in Tralee, where it will be distributed across the county to support the ongoing and increasing community outreach efforts.
Junior Locke of Foodshare Kerry thanked Kerry Foods for the donation.
“We are facing a huge increase in the demands on our service and are extremely grateful to all of the businesses that continue to support the vital work that we do to support the most isolated and in need members of our community,” Junior said.
Anyone cocooning or otherwise in need of help in terms of securing vital supplies can ring David Fitzgibbon on (087) 937 9121 or contact the Kerry County Council helpline on 1800 807 009