Cork charities and health workers to benefit as fruit and veg seller gives away warehouse of stock

A businessman with a warehouse full of fruit and veg is giving it away wholesale before it rots as businesses in Cork City promise they’ll be ‘back soon’.

Homeless charities, frontline medical staff, nursing homes, and residents of some direct provision centres are now set to benefit from the generosity of AllFresh fruit and veg wholesaler Barra Sweetnam.

He joked that he hopes someone with a recipe that requires hundreds of lemons and limes, or a few hundred asparagus and pomegranate, will come forward to ensure the food doesn’t go to waste.

A quiet in St Patrick's St, Cork. Pictures: Denis Minihane.

“I might as well give it away to people who can do something with it than leave it here in the warehouse to rot,” he said.

Mr Sweetnam, whose warehouse is based in Little Island, just outside Cork City, relied on hotels, restaurants, and pubs for an estimated 95% of his business before the Covid-19 crisis hit.

“We had more cancellations on Sunday than we had orders and we were effectively closed on Monday,” he said.

“So we had a warehouse full of stock, from potatoes, carrots, and cabbage to the specialist catering produce and exotic items we are renowned for supplying to the top-end hotels — things like mangos, pawpaws, pomegranate, baby rainbow carrots, baby beetroots, that kind of stuff.

I have salad coming out my ears and we have just decided to give it all away.

Mr Sweetnam had an estimated €80,000 worth of stock in the warehouse before the weekend and, by yesterday, he had managed to give away about €20,000 worth.

Cork Penny Dinners, Mercy University Hospital, Cope Foundation, and several local Meals on Wheels groups got significant donations of fruit and veg. Mallow Hospital is in line for a food donation today.

He gave away dozens of crates of blackberries, raspberries, and red currants — each box costs around €27 — to a group who plan to make vast quantities of jam.

Arrangements are also being made to deliver fruit bowls to the staff canteens at Cork University Hospital.

Mr Sweetnam, who has cut back to a three-day-a-week operation, said he can also arrange deliveries. “We are still supplying to some nursing homes and direct provision centres, and spuds, cabbage, carrots, and turnips are still going strong, but the fruit and exotics is gone for a while,” he said.

Meanwhile, streets were deserted in Cork City today as several business owners placed heart-shaped signs in their windows, promising to be “back soon”.

And in a sign of the resilience, Dockland restaurateur Beth Haughton, who was forced to close her Lapp’s Quay venue earlier this week, is opening an online order and collection service on Saturday afternoon.

Diners can view the menu online, order in advance, drive-up on Saturday afternoon, and staff will place your order in the boot of your car.

In Cloghroe, about 15km outside the city, the famous Blair’s Inn has become Blair’s Out, allowing customers to order in advance, and drive up and collect.

Jim Kelsey has made his eatery, Crust, on MacCurtain St, the hub in Cork for the Feed the Heroes initiative, helping co-ordinate delivery of food to frontline healthcare workers in medical facilities across the city.

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