Promoter organisation: FoodCloud is reducing food loss and waste through surplus food redistribution. FoodCloud is a non-profit social enterprise tackling the twin issues of food waste and food insecurity.
FoodCloud is the partner organisation for the nationwide availability of the food element of the ESF+ Food Support programme in Ireland, a programme funded by the EU and the Irish Exchequer.
Country: Ireland
Describe the context, aims, the problems that good practice solves, target group addressed of the good practice.
What:
A locally and globally trusted partner driving food loss and waste solutions for a more equitable, inclusive and circular food system.
Partnering with leading retailers, restaurants, food companies, non-profit organisations, governmental actors and wider business communities in four countries – Ireland, the UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – we redistribute surplus food and help drive progress towards a circular economy for our food systems.
FoodCloud’s technology platform directly connects food businesses with local community groups to redistribute surplus food.
How:
Technology
The technology platform, Foodiverse, directly connects food retailers and restaurants with surplus food to local community groups. This donation management system allows food businesses to simply upload details of excess food to the platform, and local community groups are notified to come and collect it on a daily basis.
Foodiverse is developed using insights garnered by FoodCloud from our work both in Ireland and internationally. It has the potential to bring food rescue at scale to the entire global food chain, support food banks and community groups to access more food and increase the number of
people they serve. Simultaneously, it supports food companies to reduce their food waste and to meet their climate and ESG targets, ensuring a positive impact.
Step 1
The food donor uploads to Foodiverse an estimate of its good quality, unsold food. This step can also be done automatically via an integration.
Step 2
A local community group volunteer receives a notification about the available food as well as where and where to pick it up. They accept the offer so that the donor knows to prepare the food for donation.
Step 3
The volunteer arrives to pick up the food at which point the donor confirms that the food has been collected which triggers a real-time update of reports. The local community group can then use the food to serve its community instead of the food going to waste.
FoodCloud Academy
An educational pillar of FoodCloud is empowering individuals with knowledge and tools that foster a deeper understanding of food waste and its impact on our world.
https://food.cloud/academy/courses-and-training?category=Online+Course
When: Since 2013
Why it is relevant: Pease describe SUSTAINABILITY (in environmental context), EFFICIENCY (in social/financial context), TRANSFERABILITY and INNOVATION aspects.
FoodCloud tackles climate change and food insecurity by connecting businesses that have surplus food to communities that can use it. By leveraging the power of technology they match the supply side with the demand side to reduce complexity and make it easier for FoodCloud partners to collaborate.
It links businesses with surplus food with local charities and community groups who need it using a customised tech platform.
Fooddiverse platform Technology is just the enabler, however, it’s the people who work in our Hubs, in the community and within our partner organisations, that truly unlock the potential of shared food to enable our communities to thrive.
Target Groups: Food producers and retail redistribution, world sailors, restautants, community groups, charities.
RESULTS OF THE GOOD PRACTICE
Results obtained at local, regional, national or international level, changes – IMPACT on target groups.
Over the past nine years, FoodCloud have developed innovative solutions for redistributing surplus food, minimising waste and bringing communities together through shared food. FoodCloud offers two distinct surplus food redistribution solutions: our technology and our warehouses (Hubs). In addition, FoodCloud is the partner organisation for the ESF+ Food Support programme (previously FEAD, the Fund of European Aid to the Most Deprived) in Ireland.
FoodCloud redistributed 22,070 tonnes of surplus food (53 million meals) across four markets: Ireland, UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, contributing to the avoidance of approximately 70,624 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.* This was a 35% increase (against a target of 15%) on the 16,380 tonnes of surplus food (32 million meals) that had been redistributed in 2021. To put in context the scale of growth in recent years, the volume of surplus food redistributed in 2022 was 134% higher than that redistributed in 2019.
FoodCloud also offers a managed service providing support to over 440 community groups that receive food from the 600 food businesses participating in the redistribution programme in Ireland.
In UK FoodCloud works in partnership with food redistribution NGO FareShare to directly connect stores and restaurants with charities. Our technology platform connects 4,000 retail stores, food businesses and restaurants such as Booker UK, KFC, Nandos, Tesco and Waitrose with over 6,000 community groups.
In Central Europe FoodCloud works in partnership with Tesco and the food banks and community groups in Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2022, our first generation technology platform (Copia) connected over 300 Tesco stores with 177 community groups across these two countries.
Data Source https://assets-global.website-files.com/65a64f36fd143e0af8505228/65a64f36fd143e0af850583e_FoodCloud%202022%20Annual%20Report.pdf from 2021