Testimonials
Butter Museum – Dr. Danielle O’Donovan, Project Director
The Butter Museum received funding from The Golden Jubilee Trust over winter 2024-5. The funding allowed us to co-design and pilot a range of learning activities with schools in Cork City and County. It was wonderful to have the creative freedom to experiment with schools over a number of sessions, both in school and at the museum. We made butter, handled museum objects and explored a range of online sources for the history of dairying. The funding has also allowed us to work with a designer to create online learning activities that explore topics as varied as The Táin Bó Cúailnge and the influence of butter on the development of Cork City. We’re so grateful to The Golden Jubilee Trust – the activities and resources we have created will be the foundation of our schools programme over many years.
Catherine Lascurettes – Nuffield
The Golden Jubilee Trust first invested in Nuffield Ireland in 2001, becoming one of Nuffield Ireland’s leading contributors and enabling the programme to expand to three scholarships per year.
The Golden Jubilee Trust’s long-term and loyal support, over more than two decades, has contributed significantly to the stability and confidence of Nuffield Ireland, helping to attract additional Investors and allowing the annual intake of Scholars to increase to as many as seven. This has helped to significantly strengthen Ireland’s contribution to, and influence within, the global Nuffield network.
Importantly, the Golden Jubilee Trust’s commitment has extended well beyond financial support. By showcasing the co-operative movement each year to all our new Scholars, and championing Scholars whose studies focus on relevant topics, the Trust ensured that Nuffield Scholarships fostered ambitious, independent thinking about farmer collaboration, ownership and influence. This has helped generate new ideas to improve farmers’ position in the food supply chain, strengthen rural enterprises and support the transition to more resilient and sustainable farming systems, delivering lasting benefits for farmers, food systems and rural communities across Ireland.
Aoibheann O’Brien – Food Cloud, Director of Innovation and Development
Without grant aid from the Golden Jubilee Trust, FoodCloud would not have been able to undertake the Hub and Host project, and rural communities across Ireland would continue to be underserved by food provision services.
TJ Flanagan – CEO of ICOS
The Golden Jubilee Trust has, over the past number of years, supported ICOS to deliver Co-operative support and development services to smaller Co-operatives, which are either too early in their development or too small in scale be able to fund these services themselves. This work is vital to allow these Societies to put in place appropriate Rules and governance structures to give confidence to members and stakeholders. The Trust recognises the importance of the Co-operative Model as a structure to allow groups and communities to establish resilient structures with the reassurance of strong democratic control and with a Rulebook and Co-operative that have been tried and tested over the past 130 years. Many of these smaller co-operatives would have great difficulty in forming their co-operative without the assistance that the Golden Jubilee Trust provides to ICOS. This assistance enables ICOS to facilitate these start up co-operatives and we are very appreciative of their support.
John Brosnan – (ICOS Bioeconomy Executive) – Bio Economy
Bio Economy – Commercialisation of Co-operative AD plants
Since 2023, ICOS carried out a focused study on farmer awareness and intentions on participating in many selected Bioeconomy-related opportunities. However, this study was quite limited in its scope and without the assistance of the Golden Jubilee Trust who funded an independent market research company which included a detailed survey and focus groups to assess farmer awareness and intentions around the Bioeconomy as well as their willingness to participate in co-operative structures. The progress from the initial research was the commencement of a feasibility study in conjunction with other stakeholders. The data and analysis contained in the final report will be used to pursue the ultimate creation of commercial Co-operative AD and biorefinery plants, which will involve multiple stakeholders, particularly in key Government Departments and state agencies with funding and policy remit. It is hoped that this new co-operative development will be replicated across the island of Ireland for the benefit of farmers and rural business in general.
We are most grateful to the Trust for their generosity and their commitment to supporting the commercial involvement of the co-operative sector in Ireland’s rapidly evolving Bioeconomy.