Hello.
I'm Sam Fenwick and welcome to business daily from the BBC.
How do you make a million before you turn thirty?
In our new series were speaking to six people from all over the world who have hit that
milestone.
Today we hear from Iseult Ward.
At the end of last year, we reached an amazing milestone of a hundred and forty million meals
equivalent distributed since we started.
But what was more impressive for us was that fifty percent of those meals happened in the
last two years.
So at a time with extraordinary disruption to have actually seen so much food being redistributed
through our solutions here in Ireland, but also by our partners, using our technology
internationally as well, that is something we're incredibly proud of.
Iseult makes more than a million meals every month from food that would otherwise have
ended up in the bin.
We'll hear how she built her social enterprise, FoodCloud, starting out dealing with small
market traders are now working with huge multinational companies.
I started by asking Iseult what set her off on this path.
Over thirty percent of food is lost or wasted across the global food system.
This actually results in eight to ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, so on
the one hand you've got this huge environmental problem being created by this food that's
being lost or wasted and then on the other hand you've got around eight
hundred million people around the world who don't have enough access to food.
So it raises serious moral questions when you consider that there is enough food out
there, it's just not getting to the people who really need it.
And yeah that was really what set us off on a journey to create a solution to basically
connect businesses that had this surplus or excess food with local good causes, charities,
community organisations, you know the people that are working really hard every day to
help those who really need it In our communities.
And very early on, didn't you, you saw that there was a need in Ireland and that there
were people there who wanted to fill that gap.
Yeah.
It was around 2012 when we started so the impact of the financial crisis was still being
felt on the ground and there's often a lag effect with these things where, when people
find themselves in challenging circumstances, you know, they will rely on savings, families,
friends, goodwill.
But when that runs out people find themselves in situations where they do actually rely
on community organisations and charities.
So being able to collect free food from local supermarkets and their community, so that
they can help these people, just seemed like a no brainer at the time.
And the first project was linking up a charity that helped homeless people with an artisan
food market.
Yeah.
So we needed to test the idea to see if it would work.
So before we had a technology solution, before we had any sort of warehousing and logistics,
we literally connected local farmers' market to a nearby charity and on a Wednesday, when
the market closed, they were able to go by and
collect the food and I had the amazing opportunity then to actually see their food arriving at
the charity, seeing the people in the organisation going through the box of food.
And you know there was amazing food.
There was wild garlic, raw milk, organic sourdough, artisan sausages.
So not only were we providing additional food, which is obviously going to help from a financial
point of view for the organisation in terms of saving, they were also getting access to
food that was interesting that they may have never seen before.
So all of a sudden conversations are sparking because people are standing around these boxes
of strange food and you know there's nothing like a shared meal to bring people together,
and I think that was one of the impacts we saw very early on that we may not have anticipated,
that actually more than just providing an additional resource to charities to help them
save money, you're actually providing them with a tool that breaks down barriers, starts
conversations and can create amazing social connections.
So it was the social impact that really got you going on this, do you think?
Yeah, definitely.
I think when you see even the relationship between the farmers' markets and the charity
was incredibly powerful, because on one side you've got a farmers’ market, people who
really care about the food that they're selling and have produced it themselves.
The last thing they want to do is see that food go to waste.
So, for them to have the opportunity to share that food with a local cause, that was incredibly
powerful for them too.
So what was the tech Then, that you came up with to link charities
with supermarkets or people that have got good quality surplus food.
Yes, so we saw an opportunity when we did that initial connection with the farmers'
market and the local charity.
We realised if we wanted this to happen hundreds, if not thousands of times we would never be
able to manage it through text messages and phone calls.
So we needed a solution that would streamline the process, that would connect the charities
and the businesses to each other, help them communicate,
notify each other when there is food available, when there's a collection about to happen,
but also to track the impact and to make sure that we were all able to see where the food
is going.
So we designed a technology solution that would basically make it as easy as possible
for a business to donate food, and as easy as possible for a charity to then accept that
food, collect it, and put it to good use.
And in those early days, did it turn out to be as easy as possible?
There was definitely a lot of trial and error, there's no doubt.
Definitely a lot of evenings where myself and my co-founder were driving around at ten
o'clock collecting food and trying to find charities to drop it off to, and we didn't
always get the supply and the demand correct.
But you know now, years and years of trial and error I think we have a very good solution
now where we have thousands of charities that are connected to thousands of local businesses.
But definitely in those early days when you've got five businesses and then ten businesses,
you're constantly trying new things and constantly trying to make it better
and really make it work.
Now we should say at this point that you were doing all of this at the same time as studying
for your final exams at university, which seems like a very, very big ask.
Yeah.
It was definitely a challenging time.
I think having started FoodCloud in university, I was very determined that I would get to
continue with it after university and before my exams started, we actually launched a trial
with the technology, and it didn't go very well.
But I had to step away from it for a few weeks and that
was a very difficult thing to do.
But as soon as my exams had finished I was able to get straight back into us and we had
learned so much from what hadn't worked, that actually being armed with the failed pilot
and armed with the knowledge that you know, I could now work on it full time after my
exams for a few months, that was really when we started to kind of hit the ground running.
So what was the thing that failed with that initial app
development, and what did you learn from that?
When we first had the kind of prototype for the technology, we assumed that, you know,
any food that free that was available in the local community would be very easy for a charity
to go and collect.
But in reality, you know, community organisations and charities are some of the most resource
constrained organisations in society.
So one of the first donations that happened, the charity had travelled across Dublin city
centre, had collected food, had brought it back.
But what they'd collected was about ten portions of soup and ten sandwiches, which they were
very grateful for, but they feed a hundred people a day and it took them an hour to collect
it.
So we realised from that, actually, that we needed a consistent supply of food, that charities
already were used to purchasing almost day-to-day, and that was what led us to targeting the
retail sector.
Because we recognised the type of food that was available in a supermarket at the end
of the day was more closely related to the food the charity
was already buying.
So staples like milk, bread, eggs.
Exactly, rather than, say, soup that was already prepared, which is much harder to integrate
into like a daily lunch run.
Now you did meet some resistance didn't you.
There was a particular catering manager who reduced you to tears because they said that
this was never going to work.
Yeah.
There was.
I had a great opportunity to meet the head of catering for a national organisation, which
you can imagine I was incredibly excited about.
But unfortunately, they didn't see this being viable and they didn't see it working.
So yeah, that’ll always hit you quite hard, especially at that early stage where you do
question every day, is this really going to work?
But you didn't let it crush your ambition, did you?
That was an outlier to be totally honest, and I think if I wasn't able to recognise
the fact that it was an outlier, that would've made it harder.
We met tens of charities around that time, as many as we could physically visit.
And whilst not everyone thought this is definitely going to work, actually most people didn't,
they did believe in the idea, in the vision, in our passion to make it work, and many at
the time and said you know what, we don't know if this will work, but we can see the
potential benefit for us and we're willing to back you and do our best to make it work.
So they're the people that you focus on in those situations.
You do have to listen to the other feedback, like it was incredibly valuable
to hear from her, and why she didn't think it was going to work.
Why didn't she think it was going to work, then?
A lot of it actually was to do with food safety, and kind of the processes that were involved
and especially because this was something that hadn't been done before, and obviously
particularly for community organisations, they serve vulnerable people.
They need to make sure that the food they're serving people is of a very good quality and
high standard and there isn't any risk.
So, you know, when you're telling somebody that you’re redistributing something that
could've gone to waste, there's a lot of education and barriers
to break down to really get somebody to understand that this is perfectly good food that any
of us could have literally bought ten seconds before it was donated.
And what about the people who were using the food banks and the charities, the people that
you are helping, what were they selling?
We actually work with an incredibly wide range of organisations, because food can add value
so many different services, so on one side we might
be supporting a youth club, another might be a community centre where there's kind of
like a drop-in service where people can have a meal together on a daily basis, kind of
supporting people that it might be a bit isolated in communities.
You might have centres for people dealing with drug addiction, domestic violence, you
know.
Food can play such an essential role that actually the variation of people that get
to benefit from the food is huge and they're from all parts of society.
So at what point did it really take off for you?
The first time that I became confident that, you know, we were on the right track was when
Tesco agreed to sign up so -And Tesco is a very large supermarket in the UK and Ireland.
-Yeah, huge.
So the fact that they were willing to trial with us meant that everybody was willing to
take us more seriously and that was huge, you know, that really changed all of
the conversations we were having whether it was with potential supporters, other companies
or charities.
We then did a lot of work with Tesco to roll out the solutions to all of their stores in
Ireland and in that process, there was Dave Lewis, their former CEO was visiting Ireland,
and he said that he wanted to see this in all of their UK stores.
So here you are.
You've just graduated from university.
You're sat in a room with the CEO of one of the largest supermarkets in Europe,
and he has just given you this big contract and he said, right, go and do it.
You've got more than three thousand stores to deal with and get their waste from them,
get all their waste food.
What are you thinking at that point?
Are you thinking, oh, my goodness, what have I got myself into or are you thinking, yeah,
let's go for it?
I'd say both of those things in rotation every five minutes (laughing) Yeah, no, it was very
exciting, but also a terrifying time.
Did you ever feel tricky being a young female CEO of this new social
enterprise?
Yeah, I think, you know, there's always challenges, but there is also opportunities that come
with that as well, and I think for me on a personal level, you kind of have to, you focus
on both, and recognise that there are two sides of it.
Of course, there are times where it can be overwhelming.
I've definitely experienced imposter syndrome and all of those things over the last number
of years.
But on the other hand, being young and female has probably given me
opportunities that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, as well.
So I think for my own sanity.
It's good to focus on the fact that there is a balance there, and that there’s opportunities
and challenges in different ways.
What do you mean by imposter syndrome?
I suppose that in moments of doubt, that's what that really is.
You know, you can question yourself and whether you are the person to be here, whether there
should be someone else, you know, and really doubting your own ability and I know it's
something that's from my own friends, female friends, that
often women experience a lot more and I think it can become a challenge.
But I've been very lucky in that, you know, I’ve a brilliant female co-founder and a
brilliant team, board, supporters, and really you know they're the people then, if you're
questioning yourself, that will help build your confidence.
But also, there's a saying by the philosopher Michel de Montaigne, and it’s “There are
many terrible things in my life.
But most of them never happened”.
And I think that is something that, you know, when you are in a negative place, whether
it’s about your own ability, or whether it's about your business, or how things are
going, like we do have a lot of fears in our minds that don't actually come true.
So it's important to try and keep yourself in a positive space because that's when you're
at your best.
I mean, if we look at where FoodCloud is now, I mean, you've had a phenomenal year.
How do you grow your business further?
So in Ireland, we’ve got our three warehouses and a technology solution that distributed
over three thousand two hundred tonnes last year and then internationally, our technology
platform is used by FareShare across the UK and also in partnership with Tesco and the
national food banks in the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well, and so we’re seeing
a constant growth in terms of new partnerships with food banks
and new businesses coming on board, especially in the last two years with supply chain disruptions
because of covid, with the increased need in our communities.
At the end of last year, we reached an amazing milestone of a hundred and forty million meals
equivalent distributed since we started.
But what was more impressive for us was that fifty percent of those meals happened in the
last two years.
And so at a time with extraordinary disruption to our operations, but also that of our food
business partners, the charity partners, to have actually seen
so much food being redistributed through our solutions here in Ireland, but also by our
partners, using our technology internationally as well is something that we are incredibly
proud of.
But we also recognise that the sustainable development goals by 2030, we need to halve
food waste per capita, we need to achieve zero hunger.
So whilst we're incredibly proud of the last two years and how much we've grown, we have
a lot more work to do if we're going to help achieve those goals by
2030.
We hear quotes from politicians from around the world saying that no one should have to
use a food bank.
I mean.
Do you think we'll ever get to a point where that will actually happen.
I'd hope to live in a world where people weren’t reliant on food banks, but I do think food
in communities will always have a very special role because it does have a brilliant way,
you know, every culture celebrates with food, and it is a brilliant way to connect people
and bring people together, especially in an increasingly diverse
society.
It's a brilliant way to celebrate difference, but I do hope that people continue to meet
together in communities and share food and celebrate food.
FoodCloud entrepreneur Iseult Ward, bringing this episode of A Million By Thirty on Business
Daily to a close.
I'm Sam Fenwick and this programme was produced by Helen Thomas.
If you want to get in touch with me, I'm on Twitter @BBCFenwick and for more, please,
download our Business Daily podcasts.