Duhallow Community Food Services

Duhallow Community Food Services - 25 Years

Helen Taylor worked in our Bakery unit in DCFS in Boherbue for a number of years. In 1992, having completed a detailed LEADER funded study of the food industry in Duhallow, the development plan for the establishment of a Food Centre was presented to the Board of IRD Duhallow. The study identified a significant lack of food start up in the area and noted a markable absence of food grade premises to facilitate such start up as well as a lack of food training programmes aimed at potential entrepreneurs. However, a number of bakers as well as producers of preserves and delicatessen food products operating from home kitchens were identified. Many unaware of the need to have kitchens certified by the HSE.

In 1993 in conjunction with Boherbue Co-op the old creamery warehouse was identified as a suitable location and given over to IRD Duhallow. Plans were drawn up in conjunction with the HSE. Four incubation food units were established with a complete refurbishment of the building and investment of over €152,000. The idea was to provide a training ground for producers in which they gain practical hand on experience of product development and testing, market research, market development on all stages of food development. The ultimate aim of the centre was to sustain existing food business and encourage new food companies start up through incubation support so as the risk of failure was minimised. A number of artisan and new businesses started successfully from the Food Centre and went on to have their own premises.

Simultaneously, our Community Development Working Group was rigorously researching the supports required for our higher than national average, ageing population. A meals on wheels facility that serviced the entire rural hinterland of Duhallow was identified as a necessary service through our consultation with the Public Health Nurses. A hot meal daily ensured elderly people had a greater resistance to illness and hyperthermia, particularly during the winter months. IRD Duhallow took over one of the units and began the first rural meals on wheel service in 1996, as part of a European Programme to identify new job opportunities for women, with partners in Ballyhoura and Avondhu. From humble beginnings, producing just 6 meals on our first day, the service grew beyond the size of the initial unit capacity and the years following, as small food businesses grew and moved on, the meals service expanded to take on a new unit one at a time until the meals on wheels ’ service with its ancillary catering and home baking service now firmly established, eventually occupied the entire building. From 2008 onwards, the HSE began to raise concerns about the space available with the ever expanding demand for the meals service, and so the Board took on the ambitions project in conjunction with the James O’Keeffe Foundation, in 2012 to build a purpose build, State of the Art Food premises in Newmarket. 25 years on we are now producing and delivering almost 40,000 meals annually.

The impact of the rural meals service should not be underestimated. The fact that we started delivering meals into people homes, meant we had direct access to the most vulnerable people in our society. We were able to see first had the circumstances under which people lived and the main challenges facing them. Reiterated by the Late Fr McCarthy, Parish Priest of Boherbue/Kiskeam at a meeting with Minister O Cuiv in 2003. When asked what elderly people wanted, Fr Pat quietly but emphatically said, a hot meal, warm in their homes and the ability to get out and collect their pension. This was a key point in time for the establishment of the IRD Duhallow model of Community Enterprises in Duhallow. We went on to establish Duhallow Area Rural Transport, Duhallow Warmers Homes Scheme, Care and Repair, The Laundry Service, Duhallow Furniture Revamp and the establishment of over 20 Active Retired Groups, throughout Duhallow, under our SAOI Network. This heralded the dawn of the Third Age in Duhallow – Our Elderly as a huge resource rather than an indicator of disadvantage in the region.

In 2006, Duhallow Community Food Services was established as an i n d e p e n d e n t company. We are now producing almost 40,000 meals per year. We have a restaurant facility on site and we continue to cater for a wide variety of events across the region as well as supplying healthy lunches to local secondary schools and crèches, while providing employment opportunities for 38 people.

The old co-op premises in Boherbue, which we transformed into the Food Centre with LEADER II Funding. Patricia Piggott DCFS with Board Members Jack Roche, Fr. Pat McCarthy (RIP), Nora Dennehy, Stephen Kelly Southern Health Board, Tim Meagher and Maura Walsh.

Two of our longest serving members of staff, Den Lane and John Daly. Den retired earlier this year after 18 years ’ service.