News Potatoes
Processors provide hospitals with chips
Potato processors Lamb Weston / Meijer and Farm Frites are handing out chips to hospital employees in Breda and Rotterdam this week. The aim is to encourage care and to reduce the surplus of chips potatoes. In the meantime, we are waiting for financial support from The Hague.
The manufacturers' initiative is part of the Benefit Action. This campaign was set up in response to the 1 million tons potatoes for which there is no sales as a result of the corona crisis.
FarmFrites delivered 120 kilos of chips to the Ikazia hospital in Rotterdam. Due to the RIVM measures and to disturb the staff as little as possible, the hospital will bake these fries itself and serve them to staff today, Wednesday 15 April.
On Thursday, April 16, Lamb Weston / Meijer expects to treat approximately 3.000 employees of the Amphia hospital in Breda to a bag of frozen chips after their shift, from 7 a.m. They can then prepare the chips themselves at home. The new Lamb Weston / Meijer corporate center is only 500 meters away from Amphia Hospital.
Awaiting government aid
The sector organization Akkerbouw, initiator of the Benefrietactie, will continue to call on people in the coming weeks to eat chips and treats. For the enormous surplus that the sector is struggling with, it will only be a plaster on the wound. The chip potato chain is awaiting the government that may or may not come up with a compensation scheme. There is good hope, but clarity late for now waiting for it† Insiders report that in the most favorable case white smoke will come out of The Hague at the end of the week.
Jeanette Pennings
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