The Donegal Dublin Business Network (DDBN) has expanded its COVID-19 support activities to include funding of almost €6,000 for the seven Chef Aid schemes that are providing meals to members of the community across the county.
The organisation, which is in its fourth year, has now distributed almost €25,000 in support of COVID-19 related causes in Donegal.
Chef Aid – which has centres at Donegal Town, Letterkenny, Pettigo, Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Killygordon and Inver – delivers meals to elderly and at-risk people who are cocooning at home.
The DDBN brings together Dublin-based business people with strong Donegal links to network and support each other.
The DDBN’s original fundraising focus was on the provision of urgently-needed personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff at Letterkenny University Hospital.
One hundred sets of protective scrubs were ordered from the Donegal-based company Moville Clothing and the first 50 of these arrived at the hospital last week. PPE equipment was also sent by DDBN businesses to Donegal in recent weeks to assist community home help providers across the county.
Twenty iPads in infection control cases were delivered by the DDBN to the hospital at the end of April to enhance communication between healthcare staff, patients and their loved ones – particularly for those who are in isolation.
Cieran Kelly of local company Kelco Communications put in a fantastic effort in setting up all the devices. Not only did Cieran personally deliver the iPad shipment to the hospital, he also arranged for Kelco Communications to make a generous sponsorship of five of the iPads to the hospital.
Secretary of DDBN, Sally Anne Sherry confirmed this week that almost €6,000 has now been sent to the seven Chef Aid centres across County Donegal, which is the equivalent of approximately 2,500 meals to those that need them.
“Our members have responded in a fantastic way to our call for action and we are delighted that we have been able to help out at home in Donegal as this crisis took hold. We have distributed all of the funding that was raised to date through the delivery of the scrubs and iPads to the hospital and donations to Chef Aid.
“We have a strong business network of members in Dublin who support each other and we continue to work closely with groups from home in relation to COVID-19 related causes.
“This week, we are assisting a group from the Donegal GAA Senior Squads to deliver 200 gift bags to Letterkenny University Hospital through DDBN member Mark McCormick’s online toiletriesdirect.ie business.
“The crisis is not over yet and healthcare workers remain on the front line every day so we will continue to do what we can to assist. For further information about the network, please visit www.ddbn.ie”.
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