Four charitable food businesses to check out for World Food Day

Today is World Food Day, but that doesn’t mean getting a big takeaway to celebrate (although you can do that too). The theme of 2018’s World Food Day is ‘Zero Hunger’, in response to the news that world hunger is on the rise again. According to the 2018 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, there are over 820 million people suffering chronic malnourishment in the world today.

The UN is encouraging people and industries around the world to adopt a more sustainable approach to food and to minimise food wastage. While we all should be making the effort to reduce our food waste and make more environmental choices at home, there are countless charities and initiatives in Ireland doing things on a much larger scale.

These four charitable food businesses are established in Ireland and do amazing work in conservation and charitable donation of food to those who really need it. If you’re feeling generous today, make sure to check them out and see how you could get involved:

FoodCloud

FoodCloud was set up by Aoibheann O’Brien and Iseult Ward to combat the 87,000 tonnes of excess food that Irish supermarkets produce (and then dump) every year. They hold partnerships with both food retailers and charities, to streamline a process where retailers can easily pass on their surplus food stock to charities in need, who can ensure that it won’t go to waste. Through their app and their specialised hubs for collecting food, FoodCloud have collected the equivalent of 800,000 meals around the country – they deserve major congratulations.

StreetSmart

StreetSmart is a project that allows you to combat homelessness just by heading out for a meal. When you head out to eat at one of their 36 partner restaurants (including Klaw Seafood Café, Fallon & Byrne and Darwin’s), a €2 donation is added to your table’s bill, which is collected and donated towards Irish Homeless charities and SCOOP projects in Syria and Iraq. While StreetSmart is doing amazing work in Ireland, they also have organisations in South Africa, India and Australia doing similar work the world over.

Zambrero

Although not an Irish company, since setting up shop in Dublin in 2016, they’ve made quite a mark on the conscious food scene. Zambrero’s mission is simple – for every burrito or bowl you purchase at their restaurant, they’ll donate a meal to someone in need. So far, Zambrero has donated over 25 million meals worldwide in their partnership with Rise Against Hunger, making easily-transportable, vegetarian and culturally-neutral meals to those who need them. Plus, I can personally vouch for how tasty their lamb burritos are. Win-win.

Fiid

Fiid is in the business of making delicious, home-made meals with a conscience. Delivering tasty and wholesome lunchtime meal pots to offices, they donate a portion of the price of each one to Mary’s Meals – a charity that helps to feed millions of children in developing countries every day. Fiid is in the midst of a rebrand at the moment (a name-change from Feed to Fiid took place too), but they’ll be back up and running with new meals to order within the next couple of weeks.