Energia teams up with Café Rua for Get Ireland Growing Day

To celebrate the first ever national Get Ireland Growing Day on June 19, Energia has partnered with various independent coffee shops across Ireland - including Café Rua, Newantrim Street, Castlebar - to distribute free seeds and compostable coffee cups so people can start growing their own food at home.

People can collect their free seeds from partner coffee vendors on June 19 and take part in national growing challenges on the GIY app.

There are 12 simple challenges to help people connect with nature through food growing with spot prizes and a grand prize of €1,000 to be won.

Challenges range from simply sowing a seed to filling a takeaway coffee cup with soil to turn into a pot to making bug hotels that support biodiversity!

Instructions are provided on the app to make it easy for people of all ages and experience levels to get their hands dirty and spend quality time outdoors over the summer solstice weekend.

Commenting on Get Ireland Growing Day, Michael Kelly, founder of GIY, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Energia to launch the first national Get Ireland Growing Day and encourage everyone to celebrate the importance of food growing in Ireland.

"We are in the middle of both a climate and biodiversity crisis, and food growing is a hugely powerful way to connect with these challenges in a proactive way.

"Get Ireland Growing Day is designed to show that food growing is in our nature – both as a culture and through the planet’s resources that make it possible.”