Ahead of Celtic’s visit to Ireland to play Cork City in the Cork Super Cup, the club has today announced that Celtic will be connecting with local charity Feed Cork and presenting a donation of €10,000 from Celtic FC Foundation to assist in their important work…
Club representatives will officially present the donation when visiting Cork early next month around the match, which takes place in the city on Tuesday 8 July at the impressive Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium.
The charity, Feed Cork was established eight years ago as a community outreach, to address food poverty in the local community. They started with five food hampers in May 2018, and a small cafe reaching out primarily to families trying to stay in their homes and not lose them due to lack of funding and rising costs.
Since 2018, that early attempt to help a community has blossomed into a network of five locations: Dublin, Clare, Wexford and West Cork serving thousands of families since our beginning.
To date, Feed Cork has provided over 80,000 food hampers to families in Cork and over four million meals during that time.
In July of last year, Feed Cork opened Ireland’s first Social Super Market, with clients now able to access food support in a comfortable shop setting. This runs every Wednesday and Thursday and is run by a large team of volunteers.
The charity’s core values revolve around dignity and care for individuals and are delivered by providing a safe dignified atmosphere for clients to come in and receive the help and care they need.
Over 220 families a week are served in this capacity. Families are welcomed in and give a donation of €7.50 for singles/married couples and €10.00 for families to get anywhere from €100-120 of food.
The charity’s After School Fuel programme is in its fourth year of operation. Meals are freshly made and distributed to local families, very easy for children to warm up in the microwave themselves. Operating 52 weeks a year, it was developed for children that are fed in schools but have no food on the weekends.
These kids are the most vulnerable within the community and currently about 100 children are being supported each weekend. Last year, 37,000 meals were delivered through After School Fuel.
Other initiatives run by Feed Cork include the provision of school uniform packs for schools and Christmas meals for families in need.
Delighted to be announcing this €10,000 donation, Celtic FC Foundation Chief Executive, Tony Hamilton said: “Feed Cork is a charitable organisation so close to our heart and we are delighted to be making this donation. The work being carried out in Cork and other areas is really in line with our own objectives and origins.
“It is tragic that food poverty continues to have such a crippling effect on so many people, but organisations such as Feed Cork continue to tackle this head on and make such a big difference to people in need.”
Hamp Sirmans, Director of Feed Cork, added: “We are so grateful to Celtic FC Foundation for a donation which will make such a real difference to our work. I know Feed Cork and Celtic are very much aligned in what we do and, through this outstanding support, we will be able to develop our own resources and help more and more people.
“So many families continue to struggle financially in Ireland and face huge challenges – our commitment to helping them is absolute and our work will continue as long as this need exists. We sincerely thank Celtic for such significant support in helping us in our work.”
Brilliant as always from Celtic FC Foundation, truly we are a club like no other.
