Opel Ireland is delighted to pledge its commitment to help drive social change as it joins the award-winning FoodCloud in Ireland. Through the provision of seven custom specified Opel vans, this partnership is set to deliver the equivalent of 2.3 million meals to over 250 charities in the next 12 months alone. This announcement comes as recent reports reveal that one in eight people in Ireland are living in food poverty, yet one million tonnes of food is still wasted each year. Speaking at the launch of the partnership Gillian Whittall, Head of Marketing and PR for Opel Ireland said; “We have been following FoodCloud over the past few years so I’m thrilled that we’re in a position to make such a significant investment to the movement. As the team’s transport partner, we hope to occupy the missing piece in the puzzle, by providing the vital equipment needed to redistribute larger volumes of food to hard working charities in local communities right across the country.”
FoodCloud Co-Founder Aoibheann O’Brien said; “We are delighted to have Opel as a partner in supporting us to achieve a vision for an Ireland where no good food goes to waste. These vehicles are essential for the efficient and reliable redistribution of surplus food through our three depots in Cork, Dublin and Galway. As a result of our Opel fleet, over 1000 tonnes of perfectly good food that would have been wasted is now being distributed to people who need it in communities across Ireland.”
With a 12-tonne vehicle capacity, the two capacious Opel Combo and five Opel Movano crew vans have also been refrigerated by TSS Ltd and will be controlled by the dedicated network of FoodCloud staff and volunteers. The Opel FoodCloud fleet, which has a combined retail value of over €195,000 is expected to travel over 112,000km per year, fueling the food movement with the delivery of over 1,000 tonnes of otherwise wasted food.
FoodCloud is a social enterprise that connects businesses with surplus food to charities in their local communities that need it through a software platform. Some of the organisations FoodCloud already works with include The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and The Simon Community.
