Today was one of our busiest days as we had two different site visits!  Our first was FoodCloud and our second was Enterprise Ireland.  FoodCloud has a vision for “a world where no good food goes to waste.”  Our speaker for the site visit was John Pakenham and he started off by explaining the problem that the company addresses.  Overall, 30% of the food that is produced globally is wasted across the supply chain.  In order to put this statistic into perspective, that would be the same as using the land size of Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China to grow food that is all ultimately thrown away.  The biggest problem with having this incredible amount of waste is that 795 million people around the world do not have enough to eat.  For FoodCloud, reducing the amount of food wasted is top priority.  The second most attractive option is to redistribute good quality surplus food to charities that need it.

The most interesting aspect of the visit in my opinion was when John mentioned that the company inspects and monitors the exact amount of waste that is contributed by each business.  They consistently have up to date data so they can find the most efficient and effective ways to eliminate food waste.  With this point being brought to our attention, a question was made about the longevity of FoodCloud.  If the business is telling companies exactly how much food waste they are producing, wouldn’t that lead them to reduce their food waste, thus donating less to the needy charities and putting FoodCloud out of operation?  John’s answer was pretty surprising to me.  He said that if they went out of business, then that would mean that they did their job and completed their mission to reduce food waste!  My overall impression of FoodCloud was that I was impressed by the company’s goals to help the environment while also benefiting the less fortunate.  I was excited that we got a look at their warehouse and I was surprised at how large of an impact the business was making after seeing the minimal facility space that they had to work with.

After a quick lunch break, we continued on to Enterprise Ireland which is a government organization responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets.  They work closely with Irish enterprises to help them start, grow, innovate and win export sales in global markets.  The speakers were quick to present us with almost an overwhelming amount of information.  They presented on a LOT of topics in a short period of time.  Jim Barry is an Economist who talked to us about an introduction to the company and the role of the business.  Aisling Ahern was my personal favorite speaker because she focused on high-potential startups and her involvement with those groups.  I especially liked that she focused on specific individuals who she has worked closely with and who have been successful with their involvement with EI.  I was impressed by all the information shared with us and the obvious preparation that went into their presentations.  I had originally thought that I would be bored with the material from this site visit, but I was pleasantly surprised at my overall satisfaction and interest in the company.  I will admit that I was unable to follow along at some points, but the exhaustion from the past week of the trip is probably the main contributor for that factor.