1:19 pm, November 4, 2024
County Tyrone car dealer Pat Kirk Nissan has created a mash made in heaven for a local meal delivery service.
Strabane and District Caring Services (SDCS) has obtained a Townstar electric van from the Omagh dealership for environmentally-friendly food deliveries to vulnerable members of the community.
The new van was purchased thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund for the new meal delivery service, which started last week.
Chris McDaid, community development officer at SDCS, is sure the award-winning Townstar will prove to be perfect for the job.
He explained: ‘A little while ago now, we made an application for lottery funding to provide a meals-on-wheels service to Strabane and the surrounding area.
‘We spoke to Pat Kirk Nissan about the possibility of buying a hybrid model to begin with, conscious of the environmental impact of the programme. Then the National Lottery Community Fund came back to us and encouraged us to consider using a full electric vehicle.
‘Thankfully we were then able to revise our application to cover both the cost of the vehicle and the installation of the necessary charging infrastructure on site, which was great news for us.’
He added: ‘We love our new Townstar. It’s perfect for our needs and its range is more than adequate.’
SDCS has a five-year contract with the National Lottery Community Fund to provide the meals on wheels service.
Asked what he thought of Townstar, he added: ‘I actually went to pick it up from Pat Kirk Nissan – it was my first experience of driving a fully electric vehicle and I can’t sing its praises highly enough.
‘As well as meeting our needs operationally, there are huge advantages in terms of running costs. And the team at the dealership – and James McDermott in particular – couldn’t have been more helpful.’
McDermott, Sales Manager at Pat Kirk Nissan Omagh, said: ‘It was a pleasure dealing with Chris and his colleagues as they learned all about Townstar EV and discovered that it would meet their requirements.
‘Strabane and District Caring Services is a fantastic organisation doing enormously valuable work across our communities. We are pleased and proud to have helped to get its new meals-on-wheels service up and running.’
