Cliffs of Moher/Galway:  Give us your observations on what stood out to you during your tour of the Cliffs of Moher and the City of Galway.

Before I delve into the breakdown of my visit, it must be acknowledged that I did in fact survive the bus ride, overcoming crippling motion sickness by aid of medication. The piece of information that stuck with me the most was the description of the famine plots while on the way to the Cliffs of Moher. Our bus driver pointed out plots of land fenced in by old stone walls. He said these were the plots that Irish farming families occupied during the 1800s. These plots were used to grow crops to export to England as payment to the landlord. These peasant families also grew potatoes in order to feed themselves. Once the potato crop failed, many of these farmers were forced to go hungry or eat the crops they were required to export, resulting in their eviction from the property. This stood out to me because it’s hard to imagine a reality where food was available to these families, but they were not permitted to eat it, resulting in their starvation. The rest of the day was also interesting, and the Cliffs of Moher were breathtaking. Galway was a cool little town, and it was enjoyable to shop the local jewelry and apparel.

FoodCloud: In preparation for your site visit to FoodCloud, this organization has a deep commitment to supporting the local food system in Ireland.  Just from reading the article, it resembles an organization in Pittsburgh, 412 Food Rescue, which supports the local food system in Pittsburgh through an emphasis on reducing food waste through food recovery and distributing excess food to local food banks.  Based on your quick review of the article on FoodCloud, identify one commercial opportunity and one commercial challenge they are addressing in their efforts to support local food systems.

One commercial opportunity for FoodCloud is the ability to become a self-sustaining business instead of primarily a grant funded non-profit. The deal with Waitrose reveals that companies are willing to pay organizations like Foodcloud for the removal and redistribution of excess food, as opposed to trashing it or arranging the distribution themselves. This opens up the opportunity for Foodcloud to become self sustaining, achieving the triple bottom line. A commercial challenge is related to this opportunity, however. Since Foodcloud is currently acting purely as a non-profit, it must rely on government grants and donations from companies to stay in business. To warrant this additional support, they must continue to expand, risking a bubble burst and declines in funding.

Questions For The Site Visit:  Finally, acting as members of consulting teams that might choose to write a group paper about the commercial opportunities and challenges connected to FoodCloud, what specific questions do you have about the business model for FoodCloud that relate to our course material (Triple Bottom Line and sustainability, market segmentation, maximization versus shared value, etc.)?  Give us a specific question for tomorrow’s visit. 

Given your target market segment of large grocery stores and food companies, are you planning to market the new pay-for-removal business model directly to these companies?