In October 2017 Obair received great news for the village of Newmarket on Fergus and were allocated €200,000 in funding under the 2017 Town and Village Renewal Scheme from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. This money was provided under the scheme for The Tradaree Food Hub with the aim of regenerating the centre of the village. In 2018 we were awarded funding from The Tomar Trust which will go a long way to achieving our goal. The Tradaree building has been lying vacant for many years and will now be developed as a production kitchen for Meals on Wheels, a training unit for the hospitality sector and an incubation unit for small business start-ups. We were delighted with this funding and look forward to starting this project. We thank our funders and everyone involved for all their hard work in achieving this.

In September 2018 we were delighted to introduce to the community The Tradaree Social Food Enterprise, Main Street, Newmarket on Fergus, Co Clare (Formally The Tradaree Arms Pub and Restaurant)
The Tradaree Social Food Enterprise has 5 different elements to its capital build Development at The Tradaree Building:

Element 1: 4 micro food development hubs for new food start-ups, with a centrally located facility and a business management structure. This will be facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produced food products.

Element 2: A state of the art training facility with 16 stations, allowing interactive teaching and fully serviced kitchen equipment. This will support accredited training, unaccredited training and private enterprise training.

Element 3: A modern up to date production kitchen to facilitate the ever-expanding South Clare Meals on Wheels service.

Element 4: A holistic space to include counselling offices, meditation and yoga room and addiction rehabilitation space. Family resource centre facility.

Element 5: A youth drop-in centre that has already begun development.

Tradaree Social Enterprise-Clare FM Interview

Interview Clare FM-Tradaree Project

We were delighted to be joined by Clare FM on June 28th 2019 as we officially announced further investment for The Tradaree Development.
This funding now sees a total investment of 1.2 million euro in to the Main Street of Newmarket on Fergus.
This latest funding of €500,00 received from The LEADER Programme will see the derelict Tradaree Arms transformed into a hive of activity. In 2017 we received €200,000 under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme and just last year we were chosen by philanthropic Tomar Trust to receive funding of €200,000. This, along with an investment of €300,000 of Obair funding will now see the project commence.
Newmarket on Fergus’ Main Street has seen a decline in recent years and only months ago the last remaining shop on the street closed down.
The project will provide 16 spaces for trainee chefs, as well as a start-up hub for local food producers.
The building will also house Obairs’ newly revamped Youth Space, an alcohol and drug free recreational space for young people.
A major part of this project will see Obairs existing Meals on Wheels service extended out to cover other areas in the County. Currently the South Clare Meals on Wheels service operates from Cafe Fergus and is at capacity delivering to not just the locality but also Clarecastle, Quin, Doora, Dangan, Kilkishen, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, Bunratty and Cratloe.
Thank you to our funders, our local representatives and everyone that partnered up with us to help us achieve this. 

In 2019 Obair expanded their School Meals supply by delivering Hot School Meals as part of the Government Pilot Scheme. Obair have been delivering School Meals as part of the Local; Projects Scheme since 2010.

Following a delay in the Tradaree Food Hub development we officially moved our expanded Meals on Wheels operation to The Tradaree in Sept 2020. The kitchen and bakery are now in full use from Mon to Fri all day. Our dispatch area adjacent to the building houses our 5 branded delivery vans and we have 7 routes leaving throughout each day delivering in Co. Clare. Our routes now cover Ennis, Shannon, Clarecastle/Ballyea, Quin, Doora, Kilkishen, Dangan, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, Cratloe, Bunratty and Newmarket on Fergus.

In 2022 we saw 4 Incubation Hubs being used by local enterprises. Following on from this in 2023 we expanded further and our kitchen was then supplying meals for North Clare as well as Tulla/East Clare area. We will also be expanding our School Meals operation in April 2024 as part of the Hot School Meals Programme rollout.

This project is supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development and Pobal through the Community Services Programme and the Dormant Accounts Fund, HSE Older Persons Services, Tomar Foundation, The Town and Village Renewal Programme and Leader