Healthy Food for All
National Conference
Availability: Establishing a national
network of Food Banking
Jack Dunphy
Chairperson BIA Food Initiative
20 November 2013
Waste of Food
Surplus food to landfill in Ireland:
• 250,000 tons by commercial businesses
• 250,000 tons wasted by households
• 450,000 tons wasted by food production
businesses
International studies suggest 40% of food wasted
from farm to fork
Waste of Resources
From the viewpoint of the environment, this is
a waste of resources used in the production
cycle
– Land use
– Water
– Energy
– Materials
– Labour
Moral and Ethical Question
Can we allow this to continue?
– 10% of population experience food poverty daily
– One in five children go to bed hungry
Match Surplus to Scarcity
Setting up a National, integrated food recovery
system is a ‘no brainer’
But is it easy?
No
Food banking
Food banking well established in Europe
• 220 operational food banks in 17 countries
• 400,000 tons of food redistributed to
• 31,000 charities in 2011
Ireland now has 3 independent foodbanks
Capacity to make food available
Nationwide
Bia concept:
• Central distribution warehouse in Dublin (60%
of cargo routed through Dublin)
• 4 or 5 regional distribution warehouses
receiving transfers from Dublin hub and also
locally sourced supplies
• Harness existing spare capacity with transport
companies to move product out to hubs where
it can be accessed by local charities
All Island Alliance
BIA Foodbank is FareShare’s delivery partner in
Ireland:
Giving BIA access to FareShare’s existing
relationship with food production companies
and retailers in the UK and Northern Ireland
Giving BIA access to FareShare’s handling,
compliance and auditing procedures and IT
and traceability systems necessary to comply
with food industry requirements
Outcomes for Charities
• Voluntary Sector spending more than 20
million euro on food purchases per annum
• St. Vincent de Paul Society alone spends 10
million euro on food per annum
Community Dividend
Foodbanks supporting Community Food
Initiatives
– Short life products such as fruit and vegetables
used to make chutneys, jams and preserves by
local food initiatives
– Significant savings on food purchase costs for
Community and Voluntary organisations
Capital Funding Requirements
Euro 300,000 per annum for 5 years to develop
a national food recovery system to a standard
acceptable to the food industry.
A unique opportunity to find that funding in the
Fund for European Aid the most deprived
2014-2020
An Interesting Number
Euro 175
– the value of food that can potentially be
redistributed for every 1 Euro invested in a
National Food Redistribution network
Other interesting numbers
• 70,000 tonnes of good, still edible surplus food wasted
annually by retailers in Ireland.
• Euro 140 million – the value of that wasted food
• 5,000 tonnes of food Lidl stated they could donate
throughout Ireland if there was an infrastructure in
place to manage it
• 30,000 tonnes of surplus food wasted by Tesco UK in
the first six months of 2013