Danone Ireland, a leading health-focused food and beverage company, has announced a three-year partnership with FoodCloud, a social enterprise tackling the twin issues of food waste and food insecurity in Ireland, to help educate and empower community groups nationwide to prepare nutritious meals using surplus food. The partnership aligns with Danone’s mission to ‘bring health through food to as many people as possible’ and will see the company provide a nutrition education programme as part of FoodCloud’s Community Support Programme, which assists approximately 600 charities and community groups around Ireland with educational resources and training.
Through the partnership, Danone’s registered dietitians and nutritionists will directly support FoodCloud’s charity and community group partners with an annual webinar and the provision of recipes and nutritional information. The aim is to help charities and community groups aroundIreland in making the most of surplus food and preparing nutritionally balanced meals for those who use their services.
In a recent report, the Department of Social Protection estimated that during 2022, 9% of people in Ireland experienced food poverty. By contributing to its Community Support Programme, Danone aims to help FoodCloud increase the volume of food redistributed by 10% and grow the number of charities and community groups it supports by 50 new charities annually. The three-year partnership will also allow FoodCloud to distribute the equivalent of over 600,000 meals. Furthermore, Danone’s unlimited volunteering policy means its more than 740 employees around Ireland can support FoodCloud at its three food distribution hubs in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
Killian Barry, Managing Director at Danone Ireland said, “We believe that large food companies like Danone have a responsibility, not only to address waste along the food supply chain, but to support health at all stages of life - this includes helping to ensure that people have access to information and education about food and nutrition. Having worked with FoodCloud for a number of years, we wanted to evolve our partnership beyond providing surplus food, to better supporting the charities and community groups who receive it. As a health-focused company with a mission to nourish life, we have a team of in-house nutritionists and dietitians who can share their expertise with FoodCloud’s network. With this expanded partnership, we hope to help these charities and groups in a practical, meaningful way, at a time when it is most needed, and create a wider positive impact in terms of food and nutrition education.”
Aoibheann O’Brien, Partnerships Director at FoodCloud added, “We are committed to not only ensuring that perfectly good food does not go to waste, but also supporting our community group partners to make the most of the surplus food they receive. We look forward to working with Danone to develop recipes that support our brilliant network of charity chef partners nationwide with new ideas on how to use the surplus food we provide.”
FoodCloud’s recent survey with its charity partners revealed food purchasing has become more challenging for families and individuals. One charity that will benefit from the partnership is Whitefriar Community Centre in Dublin.
Brendan Dowling from Whitefriar Community Centre is delighted to be part of the FoodCloud Community Support programme, as he sees first-hand the incredible impact it has in his community. He said, “Obviously, the main role we have within our community is redistribution of surplus food to those in need. However, we also run cooking workshops and clubs with young people from the area and share healthy cooking advice to local parents and adults. We are so fortunate that we get to see for ourselves the difference this can make, it truly changes lives, and we think this work with FoodCloud and Danone will be of real benefit in the community.”
Like FoodCloud, Danone is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve food waste from farm to fork by 2030. Danone has been working with FoodCloud since 2020, and during that time has donated the equivalent of 91,960 meals in surplus food, equating to 123 tonnes of CO2 avoided. Danone has also supported FoodCloud through its Actimel ‘Give Our Communities Your Best Shot’ campaign which saw 55,000 bottles of Actimel donated to charities and community groups in Ireland.
