Dear friends,

Happy August to you all!

Last month we gave you an idea of all the changes we’ve been working on here in the Co-Op over the past year, with our big surprise being the new online shop. We hope many of you are enjoying the option of having your Co-op shop delivered straight to your door.

As we now start to progress through the Summer, and government restrictions ease in our sector, we’re beginning to see the first signs of life for the re-opening of our upstairs vegetarian restaurant. We hope this will be an announcement that we can make in September, but it will really be down to government guidelines. However, we are working away, making adjustments to our beautiful vegetarian restaurant upstairs, and hope next month to have an update for you. Take a look at some of the renovations we’ve been up to below!

Meanwhile, our lovely parklet – a community project created in partnership with Cork City Council, Benchspace Cork, Siobhán Keogh Designs and Creativity & Change CIT, has been such a welcome addition to the Summer, and we know many of you have being enjoying it! It’s an amazing space for both the public and the array of pollinators we have – so it’s an exciting space to improve both the environmental and social wellbeing of the city!

Looking back on the long history of the Quay Co-op, which I have been involved since almost the beginning, we are incredibly proud of what we’ve built – from our store with its array of organic and vegetarian wholefoods; our vegetarian restaurant; and the variety of community projects we’ve been involved in throughout the years.

In line with our history, our intention is to keep the community ethos strong in all we do. Some of you are probably used to seeing our ‘Throwback Thursdays’ on our social media and those photos come from a collection I have gathered over the years.

The Co-op, as a city centre business, is hand in glove with the history of Cork itself. Which brings me to some other very positive news. We’re delighted that Eddie and Emma of Frameworks films chose us to be the subject of a dedicated documentary about the history of the Co-op currently in the making, supported by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. We should have news soon of when and where you can see this film!

As always, we love to hear from the Co-op customer community. Feel free to get in touch with your thoughts and feedback, you can email us on info@quaycoop.com anytime.

Regards,

John