In the final days of our Plus3 Ireland study abroad experience, we had the pleasure of visiting FoodCloud on May 18th. To briefly summarize, FoodCloud is a nonprofit organization with the goal of reducing food waste and fighting hunger by connecting businesses that have surplus food with people that need it. Several of the companies we previously visited (Microsoft, Thinkhouse, Auxilion, etc.) spoke very highly of FoodCloud, and I got to see what they meant in person. FoodCloud harnesses the power of modern technology to do good AND shares its resources/what it has learned with other organizations so that they too can do good as well. 

In my opinion, FoodCloud’s business model has been so successful because what they do satisfies the needs of multiple groups of stakeholders—grocery stores/food providers and charities/community groups. The first group benefits because it allows them to offload surplus food in a more sustainable manner (rather than throwing it in the garbage), and the second group benefits because they can utilize it and/or further distribute the surplus foods to those in need. Even though FoodCloud is not-for-profit unlike the others we’ve visited, they have adopted practices of some for-profit companies as well as “competitors” from Ireland and around the world (I.e., 412 Food Rescue). Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the FoodCloud site visit—it’s worth mentioning that Brian, our contact at FoodCloud, even did research on us/Pittsburgh prior to the visit! 

Before I close it off, I wanted to mention that a common theme I’ve seen between all the site visits is that the company employees often work in a team and/or with teams of people within Ireland or beyond. Based on what I’ve observed and from what I’ve experienced by collaborating with a team on a project while simultaneously studying abroad, there is one key takeaway I have: expect the unexpected. Things don’t always go according to the original plan, so it’s always crucial to have a backup plan should something happen. 

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The interesting tidbit (10/?) of the day is that I went to McDonald’s for dinner. Although this doesn’t sound like much, I must explain that this location was of a higher quality and that there were many more vegetarian and vegan options available than I’ve seen in US locations.