2012
Iseult Ward, who was studying Business and Economics in Trinity College Dublin, met Aoibheann O’Brien, a post-graduate student completing a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science, at an Enactus event. They shared a mutual love of food and a distaste for food waste, which is what led to the project that would later become FoodCloud.
By June 2012, Iseult and Aoibheann facilitated the first donation from the “Honest 2 Goodness” farmers market in Glasnevin to the charity “Don Bosco Teenage Care”.
They realised that they needed technology to make the process scalable and sustainable.
2013
Having developed FoodCloud into a business with Trinity’s Launchbox Programme, FoodCloud were awarded a programme place at the National Digital Research Centre and from the Arthur Guinness Fund.
Tesco Ireland started working with us through our in-store solution.
FoodCloud had six partner charities at this time.
2014
Our national programme with Tesco Ireland began. A successful pilot expanded nationally to the chain’s 146 stores.
Our Food Rescue Project began. Volunteers drove an e-car donated by ESB to collect food from stores to deliver to charities.
FoodCloud were awarded an Impact Award from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland.
Aldi Ireland started working with us through our in-store solution.
We opened our first Hub in Cork to service the Munster region.
2015
FoodCloud began working with FareShare in the UK with a pilot of 10 Tesco stores, described by Dave Lewis, then Chief Executive of Tesco, as: “...potentially the biggest single step we’ve taken to cut food waste.”
We opened our Dublin Hub.
FoodCloud facilitated over 567 tonnes of food donated to 325 charities in one year.
2016
Bia Food Initiative and FoodCloud joined forces to launch FoodCloud Hubs.
We opened our Galway Hub.
We announced a national partnership with Aldi in Ireland.
Tesco Ireland announced they had donated the equivalent of two million meals through FoodCloud.
We received our first donation from BWG Foods into our Cork Hub.
2,528 tonnes of food was redistributed to over 1,100 charities in the UK and Ireland.
2017
2,528 tonnes of food were donated to over 1,100 charities in the UK and Ireland.
Lidl Ireland started working with us through our in-store solution.
2018
We started working with Waitrose in the UK and reached 500K meals.
Our multi-year partnership with AIB and Rethink Ireland began.
Musgrave Marketplace started working with us through our in-store solution.
Nestlé Ireland became the first Hubs donor to pay per-pallet of food donated.
2019
FoodCloud and FoodCloud Hubs joined to become one organisation.