FoodCloud have issued an emergency appeal to deal with the unprecedented demand they are facing. Charities and individuals facing food poverty during the Covid pandemic has spiked. FoodCloud are asking food producers and suppliers to source as much surplus, out of spec and even within spec food as possible to meet this need for healthy food to feed people in need. As a long time supporter of fooodCloud, Meade Farm are sharing this appeal with their fellow growers in the hope that the fresh produce industry will reach out.
Tom Kiersey of FoodCloud reports that,” In April, FoodCloud redistributed a record volume of food (over 138 tonnes) to charities all over Ireland. This figure is over double the tonnage of food we distributed in April of last year. Whilst this represents a huge achievement for our own teams, it also demonstrates the reality of the growing demand for food in communities and the need for continued support from the Irish food industry.”
While Meade Farm have always allocated surplus stock to FoodCloud, they are now increasing their deliveries to FoodCloud to include other much needed fresh produce that is in short supply by the charity partners. While ambient and packaged goods can be donated in big batches and warehoused over time, FoodCloud also relies on timely, efficient deliveries of fresh produce to their charity partners to ensure that kitchens get all the healthy food they need to their patrons. Luckily, Meade Farm is in a position to offer FoodCloud any out of spec (too large or too small but utterly safe and delicious) potatoes, carrots or onions. We have asked our fellow growers to send down any other produce that might enable FoodCloud to deal with the unprecedented demand.
Coordinating the donations from the FoodCloud side, Tom Kiersey has stated, “We thank Meade Farm for increased donations over the past number of weeks. This has been really important for us in helping to increase supply in line with charity demand. We realise that food companies are under a lot of pressure at the moment, so this generous increase in donations is especially appreciated.”