Bailieboro food appeal raises almost €6,000
CHEER Forty-five families and homeless to benefit
Forty-five families will eat well over the festive season thanks to the efforts of a recent food appeal at Tesco in Bailieboro.
Christmas can be a difficult time for struggling families who may be short on food or in need of new clothing, so it is most admirable to see shoppers at Tesco in Bailieboro digging deep to help people less fortunate than themselves.
They collective purchased €5,988 worth of food items for needy families, as well as presents for residents in local nursing homes and St Mary’s Mental Hospital in the Phoenix Park.
Their generosity was in response to a three-day food appeal by ‘Team Bailieboro’, linking in with Sleep Out Cavan and Inner City Helping the Homeless. They sent 98 crates of food from Tesco Bailieboro to Inner City Helping the Homeless in Dublin.
This was the fifth year of the food appeal and one of the organisers from Team Bailieboro, Gabriel O’Neill, told the Celt: “We absolutely amazed this year with COVID-19 and the loss of jobs that the people of the Bailieboro area were so generous”.
They have been helping out families in the Bailieboro and Virginia area since the advent of Coronavirus and also bring food provisions and hygiene packs to the elderly.
“The forgotten members of society every year at Christmas are the teenagers – everyone thinks of the family and the young children and their need for presents – no mention of the teenagers in the family. Gestures like cinema tickets or tokens for a clothing or footwear store means a lot to those teenagers,” said Gabriel.
The North Eastern champion co-ordinator for Tesco Ireland, Lisa McEvoy, and the general manager of the Tesco Store in Bailieboro, Paul Rooney, afforded Team Bailieboro the three days at the store.
The response from shoppers was “phenomenal”, said Gabriel.
“Some people asked where was the food going and we explained that it was going to be distributed locally and in in Dublin as well. Those shoppers who offered to donate cash were asked to turn it into gifts for the nursing homes.”
Raffle fundraiser
Gabriel, who has been living in Killinkere for the past 18 years, drives for Dublin Bus. He says that Team Bailieboro is also hoping to raise €5,000 through a raffle fundraiser on behalf of ‘Sleep Out Cavan and ‘Inner City Helping the Homeless’.
Tickets cost €10 per strip of five. Some of the money will be spent on hampers for people for Christmas and, if there is still some left over, it will be used to purchase fuel.
The draw will take place live on Facebook tomorrow (Thursday), December 17. First prize includes a turkey, ham, slabs of Budweiser and Guinness, bottles of whiskey and gin, two bottles of wine, Crisps, Biscuits and two tins of sweets.
The members of Team Bailieboro are Gabriel O’Neill, Orla Deane, Emma and Peter Maguire and Cyril Convey.