An Irish start-up foodcloud has today announced a huge partnership deal that will see all surplus foods from Tesco’s 146 stores redistributed to charities and community groups through the use of the group’s app.
The foodcloud app will allow Tesco to upload details of their surplus food every day at a particular time and specify a time for collection. From here a text message is then sent out to all the foodcloud partner charities in the community to notify them of the offer. When a charity accepts the donation, they collect it from the relevant Tesco store within the time period specified.
Speaking at the announcement of the partnership, Iseult Ward CEO, foodcloud said:
“We have come up with a fast and efficient solution to bring businesses and charities within the same communities together to make sure that no good food goes to waste. This is a really important partnership that will make an incredible difference to local communities.”
The simple but innovative solution will see a dramatic cut to food wastage has already been rolled out on a pilot programme in 18 Tesco stores, which saw the supermarket donate almost 60,000 meals, or 27,000 tonnes of food to 38 charities.
With the launch of the nationwide partnership, foodcloud and Tesco are now inviting charity groups and community groups to register with the app on their website here.
Foodcloud is the brainchild of two young social entrepreneurs, Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien, who met while studying in Trinity College, Dublin.
Christine Heffernan, Corporate Affairs Director at Tesco Ireland said:
“Even in the most efficient retail operations, there will inevitably be food surplus and we are delighted that through foodcloud’s innovative app, we will be able to donate all our surplus food on a daily basis to people that need it.”
“The foodcloud App is a powerful and innovative solution and really demonstrates the impact social entrepreneurs like Iseult and Aoibheann can have in society. We are delighted to be the first retailer to commit to redistributing all surplus food from all our retail stores and believe that through our partnership with foodcloud, we will be able to make a valuable contribution to local communities.”
For any charities or community groups who would like to be included in the text messaging service, register with foodcloud on their website at www.foodcloud.ie
