A recently developed partnership between Tesco Ireland and FoodCloud has been announced as the winner of the Environmental Innovation category at the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Chamber Envirocom Awards 2014.
FoodCloud is a non for profit organisation set up to reduce food waste and poverty in local areas by connecting businesses that have surplus food to nearby charities through the use of an innovative app. Tesco Ireland is the first retailer to partner with FoodCloud and is rolling out the service to all their branches across the country.
Using the FoodCloud App, retail staff can upload details of their surplus food and detail the time that it can be collected. An automated text message is then sent to local charity groups that are registered with FoodCloud, alerting them to the available donation.
To date, Tesco Ireland and FoodCloud have donated over 200,000 meals and are working with over 200 charities in communities across Ireland. The new Park Pointe Tesco store in the Dun Laoghaire area has had a surplus of 2,000 tonnes of food in the last two months alone, with the surplus food going to help local charities such as the Bray Community Addiction Team, Tiglin Teen Challenge and Crosscare Bentley House.These donations equated to over 4000 meals for local charities and saved 6707 Kg of CO2 equivalent emissions for the store.
Speaking about the win, Christine Heffernan, Corporate Affairs Director, Tesco Ireland, said "Through our partnership with FoodCloud, our stores have made a huge contribution to the local community in a meaningful and practical way. FoodCloud has enabled us to reduce our waste disposal costs as well as lowering our environmental footprint."
For further information about FoodCloud or to register your charity visit www.foodcloud.ie
© 2014 - Checkout Magazine by Robert Moloney
