"We're stronger when we work together than when we work alone” - most people have seen the power of this statement in their work, home or communities. When we come together, magic happens. That doesn’t make it easy. For example, think about a time when you tried to organise a night out with your group of friends - trying to match up people’s schedules and agree a location is akin to those scenes in Jason Bourne films where teams of people are typing furiously on computers and speaking into headsets while staring up at big screens trying to pin down Matt Damon. It’s an operation and, yes, it is easier to sit at home on your own every evening but in my experience the achievement of getting together and connecting in-person is always worth the effort.  

The reality is that donating surplus food at scale can only be achieved when we work together and, to put it simply, it’s hard! There are so many factors that come into play: from food safety to schedule alignment; vehicle capacity to knowledge sharing and training; matching the food available to charities that will actually use it; syncing stock control systems to warehouse management systems and so much more. But when it works, and particularly when it works at scale like it does for so many of our partners, it is magical and extremely fulfilling for everyone involved. 

So what’s it like to be a part of building a two-sided online marketplace for surplus food donations? The truth is that it’s very gratifying and a gift to behold the difference that this food makes in our communities in Ireland and internationally but it’s not without challenges. 

The most joy I experience is when my client-facing colleagues tell me about food donors and food bank networks opening themselves up to the idea of using a food redistribution or ‘virtual food banking’ platform. When they witness their impact data increase exponentially and know that they’re helping more people than ever before, it leaves them wanting to do even more and this is such a rush! We’re so grateful to all of the international organisations so far that have taken the plunge and opted-in to using our food redistribution platform, Foodiverse. 

The main challenge is that even with the willingness of food businesses to donate surplus food being higher than ever as well as over 300 million people experiencing food insecurity, it can be difficult to bring people together and ask them to adapt their practices and their mindsets. Those who truly want access to more surplus food must be open to new ways of working. It’s FoodCloud’s job to convince potential food partners and surplus food beneficiaries that these changes will ultimately help them to achieve a scale that they’ve never had before. The value that can be added and the scale of the impact that can be achieved is monumental (take Food Banking Kenya as an example) but it can be so difficult to break away from the comfort of ‘but this is the way we’ve always done it’. I get it! Change can be a bummer and it can feel like a huge risk but it is also inevitable and typically better than remaining stagnant. 

At the risk of downplaying my day job of helping to build Foodiverse, the food redistribution technology, it is in my opinion the easiest part of scaling surplus food redistribution. We have designed the system to be incredibly adaptable and flexible so that the majority of food donation scenarios can be catered for. The hardest part is inspiring people to change their ways in order to achieve the scale that they never thought possible. If you’re not sure if using an app would work for your organisation, I recommend watching this video that FoodCloud made with our community partner Feed Cork who collected over 20 tonnes of surplus food via the Foodiverse app in 2024 alone. They’re an inspiring example of how a flexible mindset can allow you to solve the dual problem of food waste and food insecurity but also do it at a scale that they can be extremely proud of.