Musgrave MarketPlace, Ireland’s leading wholesale supplier to foodservice, retail, and SME businesses, is delighted to announce it has donated over 795,000 meals to charities in Ireland through its partnership with FoodCloud. Musgrave MarketPlace has been partnered with FoodCloud since 2016 and over that period has donated a massive 334 tonnes of food, with an estimated value of €1 million worth of food redistributed.

FoodCloud is a social enterprise that connects businesses with surplus food to charities in their local communities via their tech and warehouse solutions, allowing them to donate food easily and directly to charities that need it. Since the partnership’s commencement in 2016, 410 charities have received donations from Musgrave MarketPlace.

Through its food donations that may otherwise have been diverted to landfill, Musgrave MarketPlace has prevented over 1,000,000 kilos of CO2-equivalent emissions from entering the earth’s atmosphere and damaging the environment. As food waste is a huge contributor to climate change, its partnership with FoodCloud is a key focus for the business. Musgrave MarketPlace is committed to doing everything possible to build a more sustainable future, including increasing the number of small, local suppliers that products are sourced from, investing in new eco-friendly refrigeration systems and reducing its carbon footprint by maximising route efficiencies. The FoodCloud partnership is an important strand of the companies overall Sustainability Strategy.

Musgrave MarketPlace donates surplus food from their seven branches nationwide directly to Irish charities through the FoodCloud app. One of the seven branches, Musgrave MarketPlace Waterford has supported local charity, U-Casadh, through the donation of 658 meals to date, used for breakfast clubs, provision of hot meals to young people and the delivery of food parcels throughout Covid-19 lockdown periods.

A spokesperson for U-Casadh said:

“Thanks to FoodCloud and their partnership with Musgrave MarketPlace, we have been able to provide young people from socially challenged communities with a free breakfast club before school and a hot meal after school.”

“By using FoodCloud, we have saved money that we would normally have spent on food and have been able to spend this on additional support and resources for the young people we work with and by delivering food parcels during the Covid-19 lockdown, we are able to keep in contact with the young people we work with at their homes.”

Commenting on the announcement, Michael McCormack, Managing Director at Musgrave MarketPlace said:

“We are delighted to announce we have reached a milestone donation of over 795,000 meals through our partnership with FoodCloud, with an estimated value of over €1 million. Whilst these unprecedented times remain difficult for us all, the charity sector has been hit particularly hard with the loss of many avenues for fundraising. Through this partnership, we have helped provide quality, fresh produce to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. Rediverting our food surplus to FoodCloud has also reduced our C02-eq to landfill by 1 million kilos in line with our sustainability commitments. We look forward to continuing our partnership with FoodCloud.”

Aoibheann O’Brien, Partnerships Director at FoodCloud added:

“Musgrave MarketPlace has been a key contributor to FoodCloud since they began donating surplus food in 2016. To reach more than 795,000 meals redistributed since then is an incredible milestone and a true testament to the effort put in and the work carried out by the dedicated staff at Musgrave MarketPlace. Musgrave MarketPlace is an excellent example of an organisation that has expanded its operation with us over the years, rolling out FoodCloud to its branches outside Dublin. We look forward to working in partnership with Musgrave MarketPlace for many years to come.”