Tesco donates surplus food to local charities
TESCO supermarket in Wexford has made 750 donations of food to Wexford Women’s Refuge, Ozanam House and Taghmon Family Resource Centre over the past three years.
The supermarket is a pioneer of a partnership with FoodCloud which sees all surplus food and products reaching an expiry date, distributed by Tesco stores nationwide to charities and community groups through the use of FoodCloud’s innovative app.
‘We were one of the first stores in the Tesco network to try it and it proved so successful that it was rolled out countrywide,’ said the Wexford manager Robert Murphy.
In the three years since October 2013 when the food share began, the Wexford store has made 750 donations or 30,000 kg of food including meat, fruit, vegetables, bread and fish to the Women’s Refuge, Ozanam House and Taghmon Family Resource Centre. Any charity or group that wishes to avail of surplus food should register with FoodCloud.ie.
The initiative has helped to reduce the grocery bills of the organisations that receive the food, according to Robert, and it also contributes to an overall reduction in food waste.
‘It’s been a huge success. We would encourage other groups to register for it,’ he said.
Tesco Ireland and FoodCloud launched a ground-breaking partnership in July 2014 following a pilot programme in 18 stores including Wexford which ran from October 2013 to February 2014.
The FoodCloud app was set up by two young social entrepreneurs, Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’ Brien.
If you are a business that has surplus food or a charity that could benefit from food donations, register your interest on www.foodcloud.ie.