Foodservice supplier Peros urges caterers to back devastating floods in Peru

Peros, which sources Fairtrade and organic coffee for its Cafedirect brand from growers in the Cusco region of Peru, is urging caterers with a conscience to consider a cash donation to help the relief work needed in the area. Joint managing directors Peter Goodey and James Roberts have issed a statement saying: "Our industry in particular needs to sit up and take notice of the recent, tragic events affecting up to forty thousand people in some of the major coffee-growing areas of Peru "Recent floods and landslides have devastated the Cusco region and emergency aid is desperately required. Public awareness of this disaster is currently very low so fund raising is difficult. This is a situation we would like to change through an initial appeal to everyone in our industry. "This region of Peru has supplied coffee to Cafédirect for more than 10 years. It is an area we know very well after visiting in the summer of 2008 with Cafédirect. We witnessed first-hand how lives had only recently been rebuilt following a devastating mudslide 10 years before. These people need our financial help, and they need it now. "Leander Hollings, founder of an organisation called MySmallHelp, is now helping in Cusco. We are very keen to support Leander and her team working on the ground locally. "We are receiving regular reports on their progress and will continue to publicise this through our website, Facebook and Twitter updates. We hope that this will help generate wider awareness of the cause." They are also looking to raise money directly and have set up the Peros Cusco Emergency Appeal (http://www.justgiving.com/PerosCuscoAppeal) to receive donations directly. The statement adds: "Because we know the people involved we can be confident that the money is being used wisely, going directly to those in greatest need. "We would hope that everyone associated with our industry would want to become more aware of this tragedy that has affected thousands of our coffee growers and their communities. Please help spread the word and dig deep! Thank you."