Social media posts showing empty bread shelves in supermarkets during this latest cold snap prompted a chef in Connemara to offer free homemade bread, scones, and hot meals to people in need.

Paul Fulop of Emerald Bites, a restaurant and outside catering company based at Oughterard Golf Club, said he was happy to help anyone struggling in the community during cold weather while ensuring food didn’t go to waste.

The Romanian national, who lived in Kerry for nine years before settling down in a ‘lovely community’ outside Rosscahill last September, put a generous callout on social media earlier this week.

He offered to deliver homemade baked goods, including bread and scones, as well as hot meals, to anyone in the area who was struggling.

Volunteers from Alone, a charity working with older people, responded to his random act of kindness – they delivered food from Emerald Bites to elderly people they knew living in the Oughterard area.

He also delivered some food to older people in Rosscahill who responded to him.

“This appeal was related to the cold weather, but it was also related to the fact that any restaurant always has food leftover. And so much food is going to waste. I’m in the industry for over 15 years and see so much food going to waste,” he said.

Caption: Chef Paul Fulop.

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