Sinéad Baker | Co-Editor-at-Large
his time last year, Foodcloud was in its infancy. And as with any startup, it took some work to convince people of the basics surrounding one thing: that they could be relied upon. Being recognised as a “credible service provider” – start-up terminology for people who know what they’re doing – is hard enough for new businesses, nor mind newly minted not-for-profits run by undergraduate students. Yet last week, when it was announced that they had secured Tesco as their first national retail partner, Foodcloud got perhaps the biggest confirmation that, not only do they know what they’re doing, but that they know how to do it extremely well.
Foodcloud connects businesses that dispose of surplus food with charities across Ireland – reducing food waste and increasing supplies to charities. Their CEO, Iseult Ward, spoke to The University Times about the company’s recently announced deal with Tesco, and their aims for the future.
“This new relationship with Tesco is brilliant for us” explained Ward, who has described the collaboration as “a really important partnership that will make an incredible difference to local communities”. Tesco was previously engaged in a trial with Foodcloud, donating the equivalent of 59,000 meals to 38 charities “from Drogheda to Bray” since October 2013. Now Foodcloud will be working with all of Tesco’s 142 stores, thus meaning that their next goal will be to “find charities to link to Tesco, while engaging in trials with other grocery stores across the country.”
The service, founded in 2012 by Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien after they met at Trinity, was founded in order to “reduce waste and to help restore that good old Irish community spirit based on shared food”. The initiative connects retailers to charities “in order to reduce both food waste and food poverty” using an app and a network of businesses and charities that are willing to work on the project. Businesses are often forced to dispose of food due to the uncertainty around demand, and Foodcloud allows them to use an app to tell charities when they have surplus food supplies which that can be redistributed.
The reality in Ireland is that one million tonnes of food is wasted ever year while one in every ten Irish people suffer from food poverty. Until June of this year, there was only one food bank in the country.
The idea for Foodcloud came to Ward and O’Brien when in college. “When I studied in Trinity, I attended an Enactus TCD event, and I got talking to Aoibheann [Foodcloud co-founder] about how much food is wasted globally” explains Ward. “We looked to see how much food was wasted in Ireland and saw potential and value in doing something to respond to the cost of food wastage”. The initiative then progressed into Trinity’s Launchbox programme, a three-month incubator which provides funding, space, and mentoring for college start-ups, and received €40,000 from the Arthur Guinness Projects in 2013.
Foodcloud has previously spoken to The University Times about the difficulty of balancing their professional image with its student roots. “We wanted to get away from the perception of being a student-run project. We had to be professional … charities are very reluctant. They are usually stuck in their ways. That’s a big obstacle.”
For Foodcloud, the next step is to continue to make connections and to work with more charities. For Ward, the vision is for “an Ireland where no good food goes to waste”.
