Cork Potato Growers row in behind St Vincent de Paul

POTATO growers from across Cork have come together in an initiative to support St Vincent de Paul for the Christmas season. The move comes after the charity last week appealed 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 will donate 20 cent from the sale of every bag of potatoes that carries the “Cork Potato Growers Support SVP” sticker. The potatoes will be for sale in various shops throughout the county.
 

The campaign was launched by the Cork Potato Growers at the Vienna Woods Hotel in Glanmire last night (Wednesday, December 7). The guest speaker was regional vice president of St Vincent de Paul, Brendan Dempsey.

There are 20,000 bags of Cork-grown potatoes for sale throughout the county as part of the campaign. The growers hope that the public will throw their weight behind the worthy cause when buying potatoes for the festive season.

Campaign organiser, David Flynn, 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 guarantees that when people shop local this Christmas, they will be supporting their local community.”

He added: “The Cork potato growers will also not be found wanting when it will come to adding potatoes to the food hampers this Christmas.” He said that they will be in discussion with the charity to organise the logistics of the goodwill gesture.

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.”