FoodCloud initiative to help hungry families
Nestlé Ireland will help thousands of Irish families who might otherwise go hungry over the coming months, as the company announces a €110,000 investment to work with social enterprise FoodCloud.
The investment is being made on behalf of Nestlé’s 850 employees in Ireland, from one family to another. Nestlé will work with FoodCloud, the Irish social enterprise with 700+ charities and community partners to redistribute surplus food to families in need in Tipperary and across the country. FoodCloud has seen an exponential rise in the demand for its services following the Covid-19 lockdown and the demand is expected to grow with the planned scale-back of government Covid-19 financial supports in August.
The funding will be used to improve access to food that specifically meets the nutritional needs of families and children, that FoodCloud's current surplus supply cannot always meet. Andrew Shaw, Country Manager Nestlé Ireland said: “Access to food is an urgent problem made worse by this global pandemic. FoodCloud has reported that 68% of their charity partners believe that demand will increase as the Covid-19 payments are reduced. On behalf of our employees in Ireland, we will be helping low-income families access the balance of food they need over the coming weeks.
“Hunger and food insecurity are serious problems that require significant government-led action across the board. Nestlé is ready to play its part and we are looking at a range of further initiatives, whether that’s increasing our regular donations to food charities or encouraging our people to use some of their annual volunteer days to further support Covid-19 recovery efforts in their local communities.
“The impact of Covid-19 will be far reaching but we must all take this chance to consider how we can do things differently for the future and contribute to a strong recovery. Nestlé Ireland will focus its efforts over the coming months to build a more flexible and diverse workplace, adapt our business, help improve access to food, contribute to a green recovery and support youth employment,” Mr Shaw said.
Iseult Ward, Co-Founder and CEO, FoodCloud said: “Since April, FoodCloud have redistributed record volumes of food to charities all over Ireland. Whilst this represents a huge achievement for our own teams, it also demonstrates the reality of the growing demand for food in communities, which we are increasingly unable to meet with our current surplus supply. Our network of community partners have indicated that demand for their services is expected to grow, citing the planned scale-back of pandemic financial as a key concern.
“FoodCloud is very grateful for this generous support from Nestlé which will enable us to work with our community partners to improve access to food that specifically meets the nutritional needs of the families and children they support during this critical time,” Ms Ward stated.
The announcement with FoodCloud is part of Nestlé UK & Ireland’s ambition to 8,000 families who might otherwise go hungry during the school summer holidays, as the company announces a €1.1 million (£1 million stg) investment to work with social enterprises Community Shop and FoodCloud.