The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., has announced that two projects will receive funding this year from his Department’s Rural Innovation and Development Fund, for initiatives aimed at reducing food waste generated by food businesses, retailer/wholesalers, or suppliers in rural areas.
Making the announcement of the successful projects with associated funding of almost €190,000, Minister Creed said “I believe that these two initiatives – one from Food Cloud Hubs, an Origin Green partner; and the other from the Clean Technology Centre in the Cork Institute of Technology – will make a valuable contribution to reducing food waste, with significant environmental and social benefits”.
Following a Call for Proposals issued in July, the objective of which was to provide, on a competitive basis, funding to activities or items that relate to the promotion and/or development of innovative food waste reduction pilot projects in rural areas, the applications received were assessed by an Evaluation Committee comprising of members from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- Funding has been made available to the following successful projects:
- FoodCloud – ‘FoodCloud Hubs – Supporting Food Companies and Charities in Rural Communities to Work Together to Solve the Problem of Food Waste Through Surplus Food Redistribution’ (€111,407)
- Clean Technology Centre, Cork Institute of Technology (CTC-CIT) – ‘Pilot Initiative to Promote Food Waste Reduction and Prevent Food Waste in The Midleton Rural Economic Development Zone’ (€78,220)
- Further information on food waste can be found at http://www.stopfoodwaste.ie/
- https://food.cloud/
- http://ctc-cork.ie/
