Today we visited Foodcloud, a food bank here in Ireland who’s main focus is to focus on sustainability and protecting the environment through preventing food waste. Todays visit was very cool for me because I am very passionate about the environment and the huge impact that humans have on it without even realizing. I went vegetarian about 5 years ago, for the wellbeing of animals but also for the wellbeing of the environment. Things such as eating meat and throwing out old food are small things that people do not realize have such a huge impact on the environment, so I really appreciated Foodcloud’s approach to sustainability.

I also appreciated their obvious passion for helping others. Foodcloud donates food that grocery stores or other big food businesses don’t want to charities in need. I think that Foodcloud is so successful because they are the leaders of a market in Ireland that didn’t exist before them. Ireland had a lack of food banks and a surplus of food waste with nowhere to go. Foodcloud provided both a solution to the hunger crisis as well as a solution to the ongoing food waste crisis that causes major environmental problems.

Foodcloud has many innovative aspects of their business model. First and foremost, they are partially a Tech company. They provide online resources for companies to get in touch with both them and different charities in need in order to supply food that would have otherwise gone to waste. I also thought it was really cool that they are not only based in Ireland. They have many different centers around the world, and this year they are even expanding to Indonesia and Kenya. To me the innovative aspect of this is not necessarily that they are expanding, but it’s how they are doing it. They aren’t buying whole new warehouses outside of Ireland, but they are partnering with groups and food banks that are already there in order to bring more of a technological aspect to those centers.

There is a great need for more technology in all businesses, however there is even more of a need for non-profit companies such as Foodcloud. Even simple technology such as email or a communication app has the ability to create a huge impact for these companies, and we saw how that could work in our visit today.

Today was a super cool visit and it highlighted a topic that I am very passionate about which is awesome. As the trip comes to an end, I have been looking back on how valuable everything we have learned is, and I am looking forward to reflecting on the trip in one last post! Until then, goodbye my friends!