Cork food firm to donate 250,000 meals through FoodCloud deal 

A Cork-based food firm has teamed up with a food waste redistribution organisation to redeploy the equivalent of 250,000 meals.

Cully & Sully, the Irish arm of global health and wellness company Hain Celestial, is set to partner with FoodCloud, a non-profit which tackles food loss and waste, delivering solutions that support people experiencing food insecurity.

In 2012, Cully & Sully co-founders, Colum O’Sullivan and Cullen Allen, a nephew of Ballymaloe’s Darina Allen, shared in a multimillion-euro windfall from selling their business to the New York-based organic products group Hain Celestial.

Food poverty

With one in 11 people in Ireland today experiencing food poverty and 850,000 tonnes of food going to waste every year, Mr O’Sullivan said the company had decided to build upon the relationship it had already established with FoodCloud through donating its own excess food, and will now donate the equivalent of quarter of a million meals.

“Good food is going to waste and at the same time people are going without, that doesn’t sit right with us,” he said.

“So, we’ve teamed up with the brilliant folks at FoodCloud to help redistribute 250,000 meal equivalents, making sure surplus food gets to the people who need it most.

“We’re working together to make sure no good food goes to waste.”

The figure of 250,000 quoted for the number of meals is an approximate number, with one meal estimated to weigh 0.42kg.

Circular 

Through innovative solutions and strategic partnerships, FoodCloud tackles food loss and waste by redistributing surplus food to communities that need it, in pursuance of its 2030 goal, which is the establishment of a more equitable, inclusive, and circular food system.

A spokesperson for FoodCloud said its ethos involves delivering solutions that support people who are experiencing food insecurity.

“By working with partners like Cully & Sully, FoodCloud helps tackle food poverty and food waste simultaneously.

“Which we think is pretty clever, kind, and right up our street.”