On the 28th November 2017, partners and stakeholders on the NICHE project met in Donegal, Ireland to review the draft action plans for the project and to learn more about the good practices from Donegal and Derry & Strabane District Council region. At the peer review meeting, partners and stakeholders got to hear about two good practices, the Donegal Food Coast and the Foodovation Centre at North West Regional College. Eve-Anne McCarron from the Local Enterprise Office Donegal presented the objectives and activities of the Donegal Food Coast initiative and Brian McDerrmott from North West Regional college presented the model and activities of the Foodovation Centre. Following the presentations the partners and stakeholders had the opportunity to ask Eve-Anne and Brian questions about the implementation and results of the good practice. A number of partners are planning to adopt these two good practices into their action plan and implement elements of them in their region.
Following the presentations of the good practice, each partner presented the draft actions which they are considering implementing in their region. This was an opportunity for the partners to get feedback on the draft actions and in particular ask advice from partners from which they are adopting good practices.
As part of the visit to Donegal and Derry, partners and stakeholders had the opportunity to visit a number of innovative companies in the region. The first company visit was to the new state of the art brewery entitled ‘K2’ in Letterkenny. Partners that attended the NICHE launch conference in September 2016 had learnt about Kinnegar Brewing and their plan to move to a new facility in Letterkenny. This was now an opportunity to see the new brewery in operation. On day two of the peer review visit, partners visited the Nomadic Dairy in Killygordan which produces a range of innovative yoghurt products. They also visited and Inishowen Mushrooms in Muff which are one the largest agricultural businesses in Donegal. In the afternoon, the visiting partners and stakeholders visited the Foodovation Centre and learnt about a range of innovative food products that have recently been developed at the centre.
