Nestlé Ireland is pleased to announce Barretstown as its new staff charity with the aim of raising over €100,000 and providing other strategic supports to the organisation during the life of the partnership until the end of 2027. Its efforts will assist Barretstown’s ambitions to increase the number of seriously ill children, and their families, deal with the impacts of a life-altering illness that it supports every year.
The announcement is part of Nestlé’s community engagement programme which aims to make a real difference in enriching the communities within which it operates. Under the programme Nestlé Ireland staff nominate and vote for a charity to focus its supports. Since its inception, the community engagement programme has provided a range of business supports and mentoring programmes whilst also contributing over €8.5 million for charitable causes in Ireland in the past two decades.
Established in 1994 by Hollywood actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, Barretstown is Ireland’s largest and longest established provider of therapeutic camps and programmes which caters for the psychosocial needs of children and young adolescents diagnosed with cancer or other serious illnesses. It serves over 25,000 children and families annually and is projected to serve over 250,000 by the end of the decade.
Nestlé Ireland Country Manager Kieran Conroy said, “The Nestlé community engagement programme is central to our creating shared value model where we seek to make a real positive impact to the lives of people and communities we operate in. The collaboration is a partnership approach where we create a programme that examines the needs of the charity and where we bring our people with their in-depth business skills to help match those needs. This could range from people transferring skills, mentoring, volunteering as well as of course raising funds, and providing our products to offset the charity’s operational spend.”
Dee Ahearn, CEO Barretstown commented: “We are proud to have been chosen as Nestlé Ireland’s staff charity and to have an opportunity to work closely with the largest food and beverage company in the world that is wholly committed to making a positive impact on people and communities. Since our establishment over thirty years ago, we have worked tirelessly to support as many seriously ill children and families as possible. It is our ambition to ensure any child with a serious illness has the opportunity to participate in our life-changing programmes. Partnerships with organisations like Nestlé Ireland will play a hugely important role in supporting Barretstown to achieve this objective.”
Concluding, Mr. Conroy added that partnering with Barretstown is a magnificent opportunity for Nestlé to bring its community work to life in a tangible way that can provide many benefits for both Barretstown, and the team at Nestlé.
“It’s an exciting three-year partnership and we are so proud to be involved with an organisation which is making an incredible difference to the lives of seriously ill children and families every day. We look forward to working closely with Barretstown and playing a role, building awareness of its life-changing work,” he concludes.
