Employees from Cooke Aquaculture presented the Health Services Foundation of the South Shore with a $25,000 cheque for the Brighter Days Campaign. Photo: HSFSS

Seafood company Cooke Aquaculture has donated $25,000 to the Health Services Foundation of the South Shore’s Brighter Days capital campaign to support the redevelopment of the South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.

The hospital, which is over 35 years old, will benefit from an expansion of emergency care.

Joel Richardson, Vice-President of Public Relations with Cooke Aquaculture, said the donation is part of the company’s efforts to contribute to projects that benefit the communities it conducts business in and where its employees live and work.

“For Cooke, our people work on the water, on the roads and around major facilities,” Richardson said. “They’re working in what can sometimes be challenging natural environments where incidents can happen, so we want to make sure that the emergency services here on the South Shore are able to help our people and their families in a time of need.”

Cooke Aquaculture has over 400 full-time employees in Nova Scotia, including employees who work in salmon farming operations, hatcheries, feed manufacturing plants, trucking divisions, seafood distribution centers, and other operations.

The Brighter Days Capital Campaign aims to ensure that residents of Nova Scotia’s South Shore have access to the best available healthcare facilities, and the expansion and redevelopment of the hospital is expected to be completed in 2025.