[Applause]
so I’m co-founder and CEO of food plate
a social enterprise that’s determined to
tackle the daunting problem of food
waste today as a global community we
face a daunting challenge with 7 billion
people on our planet we are currently
consuming the equivalent of 1.6 planets
every year and yes almost a billion
people don’t have enough to eat food
waste is a massive problem and today I’m
not here to scare but hopefully inspire
I want to share our story one that will
hopefully demonstrate that there is one
problem we can all tackle together and
in doing so create benefits for
businesses communities and also our
environment
it started in 2012 when I met co-founder
of food cloud even O’Brien at an event
about social enterprise she introduced
me to the problem of food waste and I
don’t think I’ve gone a day without
thinking about it since 30% of food
produced is lost or wasted across our
global food system that’s 1.3 billion
tons of food according to the UN that’s
actually four times the amount of food
that we need to feed all of those who
are a malnourished even in Ireland we’re
wasting a million tons of food annually
and one in eight people don’t have
enough to eat I couldn’t believe that
all of this food was going to waste I
love food beyond the fact that it’s
delicious it brings us together to share
in some of life’s best moments at home
we were excited when we had a dinner
there was a random mix of leftovers some
of my best man
we are in my grandmother’s 8th family
coming together with food at the center
and just last weekend a hundred and
thirty thousand people across Ireland
came together to share a meal through
Street feast the food we’re throwing
away it’s not rotten waste food its
surplus perfectly good food and when you
think of the tremendous effort that goes
into growing producing storing
transporting this food it should always
feed people and never bins even had been
working in London and had seen these
grassroots organizations that had
recognized the value of food raised
creating a benefit for businesses and
society through redistributing surplus
food and we were both immediately
committed to establishing a solution in
Ireland so we started off with a farmers
market this was actually our first
donation it happened in June 2012 we
connected a farmers market to a local
charity and twice a week they collected
the food from this farmers market and
the impact was incredible the producers
and the salaries at the farmers market
were delighted to see their food and
joys and not going in the bin and the
charity was receiving artisan breads
gourmet products that they never would
have had the budget to purchase
previously we knew we wanted to scale
this solution and create a
self-sustaining model and have a real
impact so we began to look to technology
to see how it could help us achieve this
and also what kind of food business
would help us grow so after much trial
and error we developed a solution that
would unlock the supply of fresh surplus
food products available in supermarkets
and make that food directly available
for free to local charities
so essentially how it works you’re
working in the supermarkets and it’s
coming to the end of the day maybe an
hour or two before closed and you’ve got
a shelf full of food that you know is
perfectly good but you won’t sell this
evening and you can’t sell the next day
so instead of now paying to throw this
food in the bin you can put it into
boxes use our app to upload details of
this food and let a local charity know
that the food is available for free the
charity collects the food from their
local supermarket and everybody wins the
supermarket’s no longer paying to throw
away this perfectly good food but they
didn’t want to throw away to begin with
and the charity is benefiting from a
fresh supply of surface food products
enabling them to enhance their services
and expand the work that they’re doing
so we managed to establish a model that
created shared value for all of those
involved and this is what enabled us to
scale it was just over three years ago
that we had a 12-story trial in Dublin
city centre with Tesco we now have a
national network of stores and charities
Tesco Aldi and now little donating
across Ireland we’re working with Tesco
in the UK and their weight shows over
2,000 stories are donating across the UK
and Ireland on a daily basis to 5000
charities and 15 million meals have been
donated to date in May we reached a new
very exciting milestone where over 1
million meals were donated through our
platform in one month and just last year
we launched our second service in
Ireland we now have three hubs across
the country that can take larger
quantities of surplus foods that are
available further up the food supply
chain
and readers to be thought in smaller
quantities to our network of charities
but many people think that donating food
for businesses it’s just another CS or
or a charity initiative but I know from
what we’ve seen so far that it is so
much more than that
so we’re now at the very initial stages
of doing some case study work with our
founding partner Tesco and the results
so far have been quite incredible it
turns out nobody likes wasting food
every employee we’ve spoken to said that
it’s actually improved their day that
they enjoy handing over and sharing food
with the charities in their local
community the impact has been quite
incredible in terms of their day to day
happiness in work for we spoke to some
customers and they all immediately
agreed that they prefer if their local
supermarket was donating this food
instead of disposing of it and said that
they’d be more likely to shop and
supermarkets that did this but very few
of them knew the Tesco was doing this at
a local or a national level and very few
of them had ever heard of food clothes
and then for our charities we’re very
lucky that we get to hear every day
about the mazing work that they do in
communities and I’m going to show two
stories today Carol social services are
a fantastic organization and Rohini and
Dublin they provide food in their local
community through community kitchens
Meals on Wheels services and they
collect a lot of food from their local
Tesco store their local Aldi store and
they’re also through our hopes they are
saving an average of three thousand euro
a week because of this food this has
allowed them to serve an additional 100
people
every week to increase the amount of
employment opportunities they can
provide in their local community and
expand their services
Daisy house is a women’s refuge in
Dublin
they provide housing and support for
women who’ve come from difficult
backgrounds and the food for them has
had a slightly different impact twice a
week they receive food into the house
and its gifts the women of reason to
come out of their rooms the kitchen is
now twice a week filled with laughter as
they pick up the unusual random surplus
food products that they receive and swap
and share food and recipes we are
committed to creating a self-sustaining
model and unlike a lot of traditional CS
or charity initiatives the businesses
engage in we’re creating true shared
value and this is allowed us to charge
for the service we’re providing for the
retailers and cover our operating
expenses creating shared value is the
key to creating real change and creating
sustainable and businesses and
personally it has changed my life food
waste I haven’t looked back in five
years since first hearing of a DOS one I
can’t eat in the group of FIFO without
somebody staring at my plate wondering
if I ever waste food and then the other
I’ve gone to meet some amazingly
influential people and convince them
that this is a problem worth solving
I knew the shock at the opening of our
hubs last year and Dave Lewis Tesco’s
Group CEO the third largest retailer in
the world said that as we launched in
the UK with our amazing partner fair
share that this is potentially the
single biggest step they’ve ever taken
to cut food waste and at the beginning
of this year
they have made the poll commitment to
have no edible surplus food in their
operations by the end of this year
something that we are excited and proud
to support them in achieving but what’s
even more exciting is many organizations
and businesses globally are starting to
realize the value of food waste and take
action in 2015
193 countries such 17 bold and ambitious
sustainable development goals target
12.3 to have food raised per capita by
2030 Champions 12.3 is a coalition of
governments international organizations
businesses farmer groups all dedicated
to inspiring ambition mobilizing action
and increasing our ability to meet this
ambitious goal all EU member states have
committed to meeting this goal – and we
now have an EU platform dedicated to
reducing food waste sharing best
practice amongst Member States on
tracking our progress to ensure that
Europe meets this target even in Ireland
ministry Dennis nokton has now set up a
retail action group which is dedicated
to creating a plan for Ireland to ensure
that we meet this target and there are
many organisations starting off globally
that are also a tackling this problem
from toast ale a beer made from surplus
bread – too good to go
connecting you with discounted meals
from your local restaurants in the
evening – olio enabling you to share
food with your community so the next
time you’re going on holidays and you’ve
got a fridge full of food share
with your neighbor and if you’ve no food
waste have a toast so for me I’ve been
thinking about this problem for quite a
while and it finally feels like the end
of the beginning this is a global
movement that our planet and future
generations desperately needs to happen
we are wasting 1.3 billion tons of food
and if we want to feed 9 billion people
sustainably and equitably by 2050 we
still have a lot of work to do so please
remember the food we are throwing away
isn’t always waste its surplus its food
that should feed people it’s food that
binds us as local communities as a
global community join the movement
respect food love food and please don’t
waste food share our vision for a world
where no good food goes to waste
thank you
[Applause]
so I’m co-founder and CEO of food plate
a social enterprise that’s determined to
tackle the daunting problem of food
waste today as a global community we
face a daunting challenge with 7 billion
people on our planet we are currently
consuming the equivalent of 1.6 planets
every year and yes almost a billion
people don’t have enough to eat food
waste is a massive problem and today I’m
not here to scare but hopefully inspire
I want to share our story one that will
hopefully demonstrate that there is one
problem we can all tackle together and
in doing so create benefits for
businesses communities and also our
environment
it started in 2012 when I met co-founder
of food cloud even O’Brien at an event
about social enterprise she introduced
me to the problem of food waste and I
don’t think I’ve gone a day without
thinking about it since 30% of food
produced is lost or wasted across our
global food system that’s 1.3 billion
tons of food according to the UN that’s
actually four times the amount of food
that we need to feed all of those who
are a malnourished even in Ireland we’re
wasting a million tons of food annually
and one in eight people don’t have
enough to eat I couldn’t believe that
all of this food was going to waste I
love food beyond the fact that it’s
delicious it brings us together to share
in some of life’s best moments at home
we were excited when we had a dinner
there was a random mix of leftovers some
of my best man
we are in my grandmother’s 8th family
coming together with food at the center
and just last weekend a hundred and
thirty thousand people across Ireland
came together to share a meal through
Street feast the food we’re throwing
away it’s not rotten waste food its
surplus perfectly good food and when you
think of the tremendous effort that goes
into growing producing storing
transporting this food it should always
feed people and never bins even had been
working in London and had seen these
grassroots organizations that had
recognized the value of food raised
creating a benefit for businesses and
society through redistributing surplus
food and we were both immediately
committed to establishing a solution in
Ireland so we started off with a farmers
market this was actually our first
donation it happened in June 2012 we
connected a farmers market to a local
charity and twice a week they collected
the food from this farmers market and
the impact was incredible the producers
and the salaries at the farmers market
were delighted to see their food and
joys and not going in the bin and the
charity was receiving artisan breads
gourmet products that they never would
have had the budget to purchase
previously we knew we wanted to scale
this solution and create a
self-sustaining model and have a real
impact so we began to look to technology
to see how it could help us achieve this
and also what kind of food business
would help us grow so after much trial
and error we developed a solution that
would unlock the supply of fresh surplus
food products available in supermarkets
and make that food directly available
for free to local charities
so essentially how it works you’re
working in the supermarkets and it’s
coming to the end of the day maybe an
hour or two before closed and you’ve got
a shelf full of food that you know is
perfectly good but you won’t sell this
evening and you can’t sell the next day
so instead of now paying to throw this
food in the bin you can put it into
boxes use our app to upload details of
this food and let a local charity know
that the food is available for free the
charity collects the food from their
local supermarket and everybody wins the
supermarket’s no longer paying to throw
away this perfectly good food but they
didn’t want to throw away to begin with
and the charity is benefiting from a
fresh supply of surface food products
enabling them to enhance their services
and expand the work that they’re doing
so we managed to establish a model that
created shared value for all of those
involved and this is what enabled us to
scale it was just over three years ago
that we had a 12-story trial in Dublin
city centre with Tesco we now have a
national network of stores and charities
Tesco Aldi and now little donating
across Ireland we’re working with Tesco
in the UK and their weight shows over
2,000 stories are donating across the UK
and Ireland on a daily basis to 5000
charities and 15 million meals have been
donated to date in May we reached a new
very exciting milestone where over 1
million meals were donated through our
platform in one month and just last year
we launched our second service in
Ireland we now have three hubs across
the country that can take larger
quantities of surplus foods that are
available further up the food supply
chain
and readers to be thought in smaller
quantities to our network of charities
but many people think that donating food
for businesses it’s just another CS or
or a charity initiative but I know from
what we’ve seen so far that it is so
much more than that
so we’re now at the very initial stages
of doing some case study work with our
founding partner Tesco and the results
so far have been quite incredible it
turns out nobody likes wasting food
every employee we’ve spoken to said that
it’s actually improved their day that
they enjoy handing over and sharing food
with the charities in their local
community the impact has been quite
incredible in terms of their day to day
happiness in work for we spoke to some
customers and they all immediately
agreed that they prefer if their local
supermarket was donating this food
instead of disposing of it and said that
they’d be more likely to shop and
supermarkets that did this but very few
of them knew the Tesco was doing this at
a local or a national level and very few
of them had ever heard of food clothes
and then for our charities we’re very
lucky that we get to hear every day
about the mazing work that they do in
communities and I’m going to show two
stories today Carol social services are
a fantastic organization and Rohini and
Dublin they provide food in their local
community through community kitchens
Meals on Wheels services and they
collect a lot of food from their local
Tesco store their local Aldi store and
they’re also through our hopes they are
saving an average of three thousand euro
a week because of this food this has
allowed them to serve an additional 100
people
every week to increase the amount of
employment opportunities they can
provide in their local community and
expand their services
Daisy house is a women’s refuge in
Dublin
they provide housing and support for
women who’ve come from difficult
backgrounds and the food for them has
had a slightly different impact twice a
week they receive food into the house
and its gifts the women of reason to
come out of their rooms the kitchen is
now twice a week filled with laughter as
they pick up the unusual random surplus
food products that they receive and swap
and share food and recipes we are
committed to creating a self-sustaining
model and unlike a lot of traditional CS
or charity initiatives the businesses
engage in we’re creating true shared
value and this is allowed us to charge
for the service we’re providing for the
retailers and cover our operating
expenses creating shared value is the
key to creating real change and creating
sustainable and businesses and
personally it has changed my life food
waste I haven’t looked back in five
years since first hearing of a DOS one I
can’t eat in the group of FIFO without
somebody staring at my plate wondering
if I ever waste food and then the other
I’ve gone to meet some amazingly
influential people and convince them
that this is a problem worth solving
I knew the shock at the opening of our
hubs last year and Dave Lewis Tesco’s
Group CEO the third largest retailer in
the world said that as we launched in
the UK with our amazing partner fair
share that this is potentially the
single biggest step they’ve ever taken
to cut food waste and at the beginning
of this year
they have made the poll commitment to
have no edible surplus food in their
operations by the end of this year
something that we are excited and proud
to support them in achieving but what’s
even more exciting is many organizations
and businesses globally are starting to
realize the value of food waste and take
action in 2015
193 countries such 17 bold and ambitious
sustainable development goals target
12.3 to have food raised per capita by
2030 Champions 12.3 is a coalition of
governments international organizations
businesses farmer groups all dedicated
to inspiring ambition mobilizing action
and increasing our ability to meet this
ambitious goal all EU member states have
committed to meeting this goal – and we
now have an EU platform dedicated to
reducing food waste sharing best
practice amongst Member States on
tracking our progress to ensure that
Europe meets this target even in Ireland
ministry Dennis nokton has now set up a
retail action group which is dedicated
to creating a plan for Ireland to ensure
that we meet this target and there are
many organisations starting off globally
that are also a tackling this problem
from toast ale a beer made from surplus
bread – too good to go
connecting you with discounted meals
from your local restaurants in the
evening – olio enabling you to share
food with your community so the next
time you’re going on holidays and you’ve
got a fridge full of food share
with your neighbor and if you’ve no food
waste have a toast so for me I’ve been
thinking about this problem for quite a
while and it finally feels like the end
of the beginning this is a global
movement that our planet and future
generations desperately needs to happen
we are wasting 1.3 billion tons of food
and if we want to feed 9 billion people
sustainably and equitably by 2050 we
still have a lot of work to do so please
remember the food we are throwing away
isn’t always waste its surplus its food
that should feed people it’s food that
binds us as local communities as a
global community join the movement
respect food love food and please don’t
waste food share our vision for a world
where no good food goes to waste
thank you
[Applause]
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