FoodCloud is a social enterprise with a mission to transform surplus food into opportunities to make the world a kinder place.

Our Mission

To transform surplus food into opportunities to make the world a kinder place.

Our Vision

A world where no good food goes to waste.

Our Values

We Are: ENTERPRISING

Our kindness is professional and principled. We aspire to generate sustainable income streams from diverse sources that value our solutions.

We Are: DOERS

The only thing bigger than our vision is our drive. We’re all about action and we’re constantly finding practical solutions that create positive impact.We use data and technology to create a world with less waste and more heart.

We Are: DRIVEN BY KINDNESS

We never forget what drives us – kindness, fairness and a desire to help people and the planet. We channel our kindness at all times, by being respectful and supportive to each other and the communities and businesses we work with. Kindness drives our principles and our choices, every single day.

We Are: IN THIS TOGETHER

We are a team and we believe that trust, respect, collaboration, honesty and loyalty are everything. We support each other to continuously learn and develop.

We Are: ROLE MODELS 

We know we can’t do it alone. We need to inspire volunteers, spark a generosity in retailers and food businesses and empower charities.

Our Story

Established in 2013 by Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien, with a shared vision of no good food going to waste.

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.

2020

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

2019 was a transformative year for FoodCloud. On July 1, we proudly brought together our retail and technology solution FoodCloud with our sister warehouse operation FoodCloud Hubs, to provide an end-to-end solution for surplus food redistribution across the whole supply chain under the FoodCloud brand.

2020

From extreme peaks and troughs in the supply of food, limited volunteers and restrictive Covid-19 work practices, FoodCloud saw some of their highest and lowest volumes of food in 2020 amid panic buying and the closure of the hospitality sector. As a result, during the peak of the pandemic in April and May, FoodCloud more than doubled the amount of food redistributed from an average of 25 tonnes per week in February to over 60 tonnes per week. They distributed 75% more food across their three Hubs than in 2019 to over 650 charities and community groups across Ireland.

2021

2021 was yet another extraordinary year for FoodCloud. The unprecedented growth in 2020 meant that the focus for 2021 had to be on the introduction of significant changes across organisation in terms of work practices, technological upgrades and our fundraising strategy. FoodCloud entered the year facing further pandemic uncertainty which posed a challenge in setting targets and predicting what the year would look like. Given the accelerated climate and food security crises, in addition to the core offering, FoodCloud needed to implement significant and necessary projects to future-proof their systems, strategy and technology for transformative impact in this UN-designated Decade of Action to 2030. FoodCloud redistributed 16,380 tonnes of surplus food (39 million meals) across four markets: Ireland, UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, contributing to the avoidance of approximately 52,416 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This was a 25% increase on the 13,116 tonnes of surplus food (31 million meals) that had been redistributed in 2020. 

Our Board of Directors

FoodCloud wish to acknowledge the work of our voluntary Board of Directors and to thank them sincerely for their advocacy, direction, insight and often unrecognised work for us. We could not and would not have achieved our impact without their expertise and support.
Read about FoodCloud Governance here.

Cathriona Hallahan

Cathriona, who retired as Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland in September 2021, is a member of a number of boards including Keelings, Dalata Hotel Group, Beats Medical, UCD’s advisory board, and Trinity Business School. In 2018, she was awarded the inaugural Women of Concern award, an award set up to recognise leaders who promote gender equality. Cathriona brings a wealth of experience notably in strategic policy development and delivery, corporate affairs and communications.


Jack Dunphy

Jack worked at senior level in the not-for-profit sector for 40 years and was an innovator in community development initiatives. He is a founding member and current Chairman of Community Action Network (CAN) and director of St. Andrew’s Resource Centre. He set up Crosscare Foodbank and served on the Board of the European Food Banks Federation (FEBA) for 15 years. He is a founding director of FoodCloud Hubs.

Eoin MacCuirc

Eoin MacCuirc  is a senior civil servant with the Central Statistics Office. He is Chairman of Cork Simon Community and is a founding director of FoodCloud Hubs and FoodCloud.

Eoin is Company Secretary of FoodCloud.

Colman O’Keeffe

Colman O’Keeffe is a retired Chartered Accountant, qualifying with PWC. Colman joined Flogas plc as Group Finance Director. He then became Deputy Managing Director of DCC Energy.

Ann Keenan (Chairperson)

Ann Keenan has held senior executive level roles for 40 + years in HR and strategic development in IBM and DCC plc during sustained periods of fast growth in both companies. Ann is a board member of Dublin Zoo and Fota Wildlife Park, Cork and is a three-time awardee in Women’s Executive Network‘s “Ireland’s Most Powerful Women: Top 25” awards.

Joe Hogan

Joe Hogan is the founder and CTO of Openet, one of Ireland’s largest indigenous technology company and global leader in telecoms business solutions. Joe brings a wealth of experience in technology, entrepreneurship and international markets.

Dr. Colum Gibson

Dr. Colum Gibson is an environmental consultant and researcher with the Clean Technology Centre (CTC) at Cork Institute of Technology. Colum works on a number of national programmes funded under the EPA’s National Waste Prevention Programme including Stop Food Waste.

Ciaran Foley

Ciaran Foley is the Managing Director of DHL Supply Chain in Ireland. Ciaran has over 25 years experience in the logistics industry in Ireland and in the UK, previously holding the position of Supply Chain Director for Tesco Ireland. In his role in retail, Ciaran was an early supporter of FoodCloud.

Niamh Bushnell

Niamh is the founder and CEO of TechIreland, a not for profit that helps companies and individuals to discover and connect with innovative Irish companies. Prior to TechIreland Niamh was Dublin’s first Commissioner for Startups. She founded the Dublin Globe publication, the 1stFridayBrekkie, and co-founded a mentoring programme called Mentoring for Scale.


Our Annual Reports