Top farmers co-op donates 5,000 packs of Welsh cheese to help families in need

Wales’s leading dairy company has provided over a ton of its award-winning cheese worth £10,000 to food banks and community schemes across Gwynedd and Anglesey.

North Wales farmer co-operative South Caernarfon Creameries has donated 5,000 220-gram packs of its grated Dragon cheddar to help families in need across North West Wales.

The company has maintained its milk collections from 135 farmer-members throughout North and Mid Wales and has continued to produce their Welsh cheeses and butter at their headquarters near Chwilog throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to help feed the nation.

Managing Director Alan Wyn-Jones said: “Our structure is quite unique in that we are a wholly-owned welsh farmer-co-operative and one of our key objectives is to ensure that we contribute as much as we possibly can to our local communities.

“I know a few people that are involved in the running of local food banks and of the demands being put upon them at this difficult time and it made me think about how we could support them.

“These are challenging times for everyone but especially for those who are struggling to put food on the table for their families.

“We felt that we could make a difference by providing 5,000 packs of our Dragon grated cheese which can be used as a key ingredient for many nutritious family meals.

“Food Banks provide an invaluable service across all parts of the country and we thank all of those volunteers who continue to help those that need it the most.”

The cheese will also be included in community ‘meals on wheels’ services in Gwynedd and in free lunch boxes being delivered to vulnerable people across Anglesey and Gwynedd through the Cynllun Neges project being run by Dylan’s Restaurant and Menter Môn.

Cheryl Bullard, whose husband, Gwynedd County Councillor for Pwllheli North, Dylan, helped set up the food bank in the town, said: “South Caernarfon Creameries have been very generous – they had already made a donation of cheese and biscuits to us at Pwllheli.

“Now this is a great gesture for the whole area and cheese is such a versatile and healthy food and it’s locally-produced and high quality.

“It’s nice to see so many people pulling together in this crisis because since Cofid-19 we’ve been busier than ever before.

“But we’ve had lots of families coming to us because they are struggling and we know there are still lots of people out there who are in difficulty.”

Marian Wyn Jones, a project support officer with Gwynedd Council, said: “I have been contacting businesses in Gwynedd to see if they had stock to donate to the food banks and South Caernarfon Creameries got in touch with me to see if they could cover more than just Gwynedd.

“They promised us five thousand packs of cheese – it was lucky I was sitting down because I might have keeled over. It was a fantastic offer and it will go to our food banks.

“They are doing an amazing job because demand has increased so much lately because of Covid-19 and there is a lot of pressure on them.

“This will be shared among the 10 food banks across Gwynedd and with various community schemes and with Cynllun Neges.

“Cheese is such a versatile food and it has nutritional value too so I have to say a heartfelt thanks to SCC.”

South Caernarfon Creameries was founded in 1938 with an initial 63 producer-members and has now grown to be Wales’s premier dairy company supplying its cheese and butter to the UK’s major supermarkets as well as to international markets.

Businesses who’d like to contribute any surplus food stocks to the campaign can contact Marian Wyn Jones on 07989 351502 or 01766 771000, e-mail: CymorthCymunedol@gwynedd.llyw.cymru

For more information on Dragon cheese go to https://dragonwales.co.uk/