Coca-Cola HBC Ireland and Northern Ireland were joined by partner FoodCloud at the Liffey Valley Tesco store on 7 December, as they announced the impact of this year’s ‘Win a Meal, Give a Meal’ campaign, which will see 70,000 meals delivered through FoodCloud to support communities in need across the festive season.
As part of the campaign, launched earlier this month, Tesco shoppers across Ireland were in with a chance to win a meal, and for every entry received, Coca-Cola HBC donated a meal to FoodCloud, a not-for-profit social enterprise working to tackle food waste and food security.
To date, FoodCloud has helped to ensure that 250 million meals have gone to people in need and 105,000 tonnes of food was not wasted by redistributing surplus food from the industry to a network of over 650 community groups across Ireland.
Long-Standing Partnership
Coca-Cola HBC has a long-standing partnership with FoodCloud in the Republic of Ireland and its FareShare counterpart in Northern Ireland, with the company providing financial and product donations, as well as volunteer hours.
Earlier this year, Coca-Cola HBC announced the expansion of this partnership and its investment in supporting the delivery of FoodCloud’s food-sourcing strategy, which will take a holistic approach to reducing food waste across the island of Ireland and focus on doubling the volume of food redistributed – to 5,100 tonnes per year – by 2025.
Over the past three years, Coca-Cola HBC has donated over €105,000 – the equivalent of 315,000 meals – to FoodCloud, not only reducing food waste, but also carbon emissions, thereby accelerating the country’s journey to net zero.
‘Win a Meal, Give a Meal’
Tom Burke, corporate affairs and sustainability director, Coca-Cola HBC Ireland and Northern Ireland, said, “We want to thank Tesco for coming on board once again this year and taking part in our ‘Win a Meal, Give a Meal’ campaign. As a result of the generosity of Tesco shoppers, 70,000 meals will be redistributed to communities that can benefit from perfectly good surplus food this festive season, through our partner, FoodCloud.”
Aoibheann O’Brien, co-founder of FoodCloud, said, “FoodCloud has a long-standing partnership with both Coca-Cola HBC and Tesco, so this campaign is particularly special, as it enables us to work closely with them both to achieve our common goal of reducing food waste and distributing meals to those that need them most this Christmas.
“It’s great to see how engaged customers were during the campaign. Each year we hope to educate the public that little bit more about the work of FoodCloud through this initiative, and how critical it is to our entire ecosystem and in our collective mission to create more sustainable communities and achieve a net-zero future.”
Sam Watkins, packaged foods director, Tesco Ireland, said, “This year, Tesco and FoodCloud celebrated ten years of partnership. During that time, the partnership has saved millions of meals, helped thousands of charitable organisations, and transformed the conversation around store level surplus.
“We’re proud of our partnership and legacy with FoodCloud, and [we] were delighted to once again collaborate with Coca-Cola HBC on their now annual ‘Win a Meal, Give a Meal’ campaign this Christmas. It has been great to see the engagement across Tesco stores in the campaign, which will result in the distribution of 70,000 meals to communities across Ireland.”
