Letter: fundraising for milk powder to go to Yemen.

DEAR SIR: To follow The Dealer reference last week about sending milk powder to Yemen, more is needed to make this a reality. The hope is that this becomes a farmer-driven, “bottom up” effort, to collect enough to get a plane load of whole milk powder to send to Yemen.

If we can collect €10 per farm, or the “milk of one cow for one day” from all of us, that equates to 80t of powder. Doing nothing is the easy option.

A phone call from many of you to your board member, a receptive ear from them and the difficult becomes possible

Is what has been proposed difficult? Of course it is, but if we can make this happen, we can help alleviate hunger, while raising awareness of the plight of the people of Yemen, victims of a conflict not of their making.

A phone call from many of you to your board member, a receptive ear from them and the difficult becomes possible.

Co-ops get many appeals for money for a variety of causes. It is because of this, and also to make this a national campaign, that the appeal is structured like this.

This is from all of us. It is from every dairy farmer who collectively drives this industry – we want to see that plane taking off with milk from all our farms on board.

The concept is about taking a little from a lot to make a huge difference

The aim is that the fund is assembled and then ICOS makes a single donation for milk powder on behalf of Irish dairy farmers to the Irish Red Cross.

The concept is about taking a little from a lot to make a huge difference. It is also to have all of us in this together, irrespective of cow numbers – the true co-op spirit.