Class act Celtic to make generous Cork charity donation

Celtic FC has pledged to donate €10,000 to a Cork charity when the Scottish side visits Leeside next week for the Cork Super Cup.

The generous donation will go to local charity Feed Cork which works to fight food poverty in Cork city.

Club representatives will officially present the donation during their visit next week which will see Cork City FC take on Celtic on 8 July at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the 2025 Cork Super Cup.

Celtic FC Foundation Chief Executive, Tony Hamilton, said: “Feed Cork is a charitable organisation so close to our heart and we are delighted to be making this donation. The work being carried out in Cork and other areas is really in line with our own objectives and origins.

“It is tragic that food poverty continues to have such a crippling effect on so many people, but organisations such as Feed Cork continue to tackle this head on and make such a big difference to people in need,” he added.

Established in 2018, Feed Cork has provided over 80,000 food hampers to families in Cork and over 4 million meals to date.

In July of last year, the charity opened Ireland's first Social Super Market allowing clients to access food support in a comfortable shop setting. The market runs every Wednesday and Thursday and is run by a large team of volunteers.

Hamp Sirmans, director of Feed Cork, said: “We are so grateful to Celtic FC Foundation for a donation which will make such a real difference to our work. I know Feed Cork and Celtic are very much aligned in what we do, and through this outstanding support we will be able to develop our own resources and help more and more people.

“So many families continue to struggle financially in Ireland and face huge challenges - our commitment to helping them is absolute and our work will continue as long as this need exists.

“We sincerely thank Celtic for such significant support in helping us in our work,” added Mr Sirmans.

Another of the charity’s programmes, After School Fuel, is now in its fourth year of operation. The programme sees freshly made meals distributed to Cork families that are designed to be very easy for children to warm up in the microwave themselves. Operating 52 weeks a year, the programme supports close to 100 children every weekend. Last year, 37,000 meals were delivered through After School Fuel.

Since starting out in Cork five years ago, the charity has established a network of five locations altogether, with hubs in Dublin, Clare, Wexford, and West Cork serving thousands of families every week.