The co-founders of social enterprise FoodCloud are connecting hungry communities with surplus food that would otherwise end up in the trash while demystifying how food waste occurs in the first place — and the answers aren't as simple as they may seem.
Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O'Brien launched FoodCloud in 2013 with a key mission in mind: creating a kinder world. As a bridge between food producers and wholesalers and retailers, the organization has redistributed approximately 3.4 million meals in Ireland and internationally.
However, getting to this point required Ward and O'Brien to confront the common misconception that food waste means something is rotten or unsafe for consumption.
"We use food that you could buy in a supermarket a few minutes before it's donated to us. The supermarket just takes it off the shelf because it's not going to be sellable the next day," Ward told The Sunday Times. "It can be wonky fruit and vegetables. It can be short-dated products or jars that need to be re-labelled. It is always safe, edible, quality food."
Aesthetic concerns and misunderstandings about food safety contribute to food waste worldwide, which can be a significant drain on wallets. For instance, the average U.S. consumer loses $728 each year to food waste, per the Environmental Protection Agency.
Food waste also releases heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, contributing to rising global temperatures that threaten to upend global food supply systems. Meanwhile, overcultivation to meet excess demand can lead to soil degradation and make food harder to produce.
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In California, officials are removing sell-by dates, which are part of an inventory management system, to avoid confusion, while Misfits Market is among the providers connecting consumers with odd-looking yet perfectly safe and nutritious produce at discounted rates.
In Dublin, FoodCloud has blossomed from being solely an effective food redistributor whose core team at its operational hub was supported by volunteers into an enterprise distributing meals directly to charities via its community meals program, according to The Times.
The organization, which relies on social funding and commercial sales for income, serves up 26,000 meals per year through the program and hopes to increase that number to 200,000.
Ward and O'Brien have also launched a FoodCloud food truck that serves both corporate clients and workers at Broomhill Industrial Estate. Offerings include Mexican-style chicken paninis for only €4.50 ($5.23) and egg sandwiches for €3.50 ($4.07).
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"It's a way to make sure we don't waste food but also highlights and challenges assumptions on what can be done with surplus food," O'Brien told The Times. (Working with leftovers at home can also yield surprisingly tasty and budget-friendly meals.)
By 2030, FoodCloud hopes to expand to five more countries. It already operates in the United Kingdom and Kenya, while charities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia use its tech platform.
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