Local Notes: Ballyhaunis catering company finds niche in hot school meals
Steak Out catering is providing nutritious meals to several schools in counties Mayo and Roscommon.
A Ballyhaunis-based couple has set up a thriving business delivering hot meals to local schools out of their own personal experience of school meals for their autistic son. Steak Out Catering prepares hot meals for children in ten schools in counties Mayo and Roscommon with interest coming from other schools.
“We have an autistic son, the meal he was getting was not suitable for kids with special needs,” explained Michele Donohue, who runs the business with her husband Stephen, a trained chef. “If he wanted something plain it was not there, he couldn’t find anything better.”
Steak Out allows families to pre-select their child’s meal, which is delivered hot to the school. Parents have expressed satisfaction with the food.
“Over Halloween, we did a review and surveyed parents on the menu," said Ms Donohue. "The feedback was very positive.”
Sustainability is another major attraction of Steak Out which supplies its meals in reusable containers rather than disposable plastic wrapping supplied by other providers.
“To be sustainable they’re washing the containers. We didn’t want 500 boxes in the bin. Kids bring their own cutlery.”
The couple made major life changes to set up the venture, with Steven giving up his hotel management role to care for the children.
“Steven was a chef by trade and did a lot of event catering... he also worked in hotel management, while I had a corporate job in Clare,” Ms Donohue explained.
Steak Out is today feeding “500 or 600 kids,” she added.
Among the schools served are Carrick (Ballinlough), Granlahan, Loughlynn and Kilmovee but also Meelick and Roundfort. Logboy National School was the tenth school to sign up recently.
Steak Out employs six staff and operates out of the former Gildea Woodworking workshop premises in Ballyhowley between Ballyhaunis and Knock.
“We took a five-year lease and there’s space to expand capacity,” said Ms Donohue. “It’s a big opportunity.”
The couple lives on Knock Street in Ballyhaunis, having converted what was the Lantern Bar into a living space.
Steak Out and other suppliers are responding to demand created by a government focus on reducing child poverty and inequality, particularly in more disadvantaged communities.
Introduced in 2019, the Hot School Meals programme now feeds 400,000 pupils nationwide. Finding suppliers has, however, been a challenge in some regions. A proposal to install ovens in small school buildings has proven impractical.
"Smaller schools prefer getting the meals delivered,” explained Ms Donohue.
There are plenty of enquiries coming in from other schools.
“The principals of schools we serve get in touch with other schools. They say ‘these guys are offering something different’ so we have more schools coming to us.”
However, the business wants to focus on quality over quantity, said Ms Donohue.
“We don’t want to be too big. We were approached by a school in Westport but it’s too far.”
Steak Out sources its food from local suppliers: mince from Ballyhaunis butcher Paddy Phillips and burgers from Mark’s Meats in Dunmore. It also buys from VK Foods, a Ballyhaunis supplier. The emphasis is on freshness.
“We make our sauces from scratch. The soups use all fresh vegetables and herbs. Everything is made fresh.”
The bus service connecting Ballyhaunis to Athlone and Westport saw its passenger numbers rise by 10% in the year to date compared to the same period in 2023, according to data provided to this column by Bus Eireann.
There was a 4% rise in the number of passengers on Route 64, an expressway service between Sligo and Galway calling at Ballyhaunis as well as Knock and Knock Airport. The Athlone-Westport service offers several services daily while the Route 64 service is popular with students seeking to commute to college.
The families of a group of inspirational revolutionary women from the Ballyhaunis area are expected to attend a special exhibit and lecture on November 30th by the Mayo Genealogy Group, recipients of this year’s Mayo People of the Year awards.
The Revolutionary Women of East Mayo exhibition and talk will feature a series of women from the Ballyhaunis area: Mrs Dillon-Leetch, Dr Maude O’Cleirigh, Gretta Mullins, Mae Grealy, Florrie Murray, Mollie Donnellan, Baby Hunt, Bridget Sloyan and Kathleen McDonald. Also featured are the Curley sisters, Crossard and Bridig Meath (nee Lee), mother of Maisin Meath, Clare St.
Historian Frank Fagan will speak about the Irish Civil War on the night while an exhibition of story-boards will feature the biographies of the brave women and their fight. The event commences at 7pm with the lecture at 8pm.
December 1st will see two major Christmas markets in Ballyhaunis, one in the town square organised by Ballyhaunis Chamber of Commerce and the other in the Community Hall, organised by the Mayo Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The redevelopment of the former Convent of Mercy national school building as a community hub will be steered by a newly appointed staff member at Mayo County Council, according to Padraic Flanagan, the council’s chief administrative officer for the Claremorris district, of which Ballyhaunis is part.
“A new department to deliver certain capital projects has been established in the council,” Flanagan explained. "They will have a staff member allocated to moving on the Ballyhaunis Community Vision project and delivering it on the ground. They have taken over the project as and from this month.”
Mr Flanagan earlier told this column he hoped that the site, owned by the council, will host a new town library. The project will be delivered with funds from the Department of Rural and Community Development.
Best of luck to local singer-songwriter Nessa Ruane Dalton whose new single ‘Love Is All Around at Christmas Time’ is released on all major streaming platforms on November 29th.
The 17-year-old schoolgirl “began her artistic journey at the age of six” and, influenced by artists like Bruno Mars, Aretha Franklin and Elton John, has been busking and performing at pub gigs and festivals across Ireland and the UK, and winning local and national music competitions.
In the summer of 2024, she played local festivals and appeared at the Craic by the Creek Festival in Manchester and a guest appearance with the Tumbling Paddies at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town, London.
The manager of Aldi’s Ballyhaunis store, Stacey Roddy, said she and her staff are “so honoured” to be recognised in the annual judging report in the annual SuperValu Tidy Towns competition.
The €7 million store on Main Street was praised for its biodiversity-friendly landscaping by the Tidy Towns judges who said the store was “probably the best example” of such pollinator-friendly landscaping they’d encountered at any retail store.
“It was designed by Deady Gahan Architects and built by Stewart Construction, while the landscaping of the grounds was undertaken by Avara Landscapes,” explained Ms Roddy. “We’re committed to developing and operating stores that offer a pleasant and enjoyable shopping experience for our customers and contribute positively to the communities we serve.
“The store was designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible. As well as the variety of pollinator-friendly plants praised by the competition judges, the store is also powered by green electricity and features solar panels on the roof.”
Nearly two decades after the closure of the manned railway crossing at Holywell, Irish Rail has installed a hut on the site for an operative in the event of a failure of the electronically operated barrier.
Recent construction at the Holywell level crossing is for a hut for an “emergency crossing operator”, according to an Irish Rail statement to this column, “required if the crossing had a fault at any time.”
Gorthaganny man Brendan Hurley has already announced the line-up for next year’s Night and Day Festival which takes place on June 27th to 29th in Boyle.
Major acts from the British and Irish music scenes like KT Tunstall, The Stunning, and Lisa Hannigan will be joined by Jose Gonzalez as well as The Wailers.
2025 will mark the third edition of the festival at its site, Lough Key Forest Park near Boyle. Hurley told this column after this year’s edition of the festival that 3,000 people from across the country attended the festival this year.
Night and Day has support from Coillte, the state-owned forestry company on whose land the festival happens, as well as Roscommon County Council which is keen to bring major cultural acts to the county.
To mark another full and successful year, and to celebrate its volunteers and partners, Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns would like you to join them at their end-of-year social event in Ballyhaunis Community Hall, on Saturday, December 7th, from 7 to 9pm.
They will share a brief retrospective, photos and videos that marked the year, but more than anything, this event is about sharing and networking. It is also a family-friendly evening with snacks and drinks provided.
