Iseult Ward

We were bringing something completely new to Ireland that hadn't really been done in this way before.

And trust was going to be essential.

It was...

It was 2012, 2013.

You know, we were kind of like post-recession.

Funding had been cut dramatically for the sector.

They were still seeing increases in needs and increased demand for their services.

It was a really challenging time for the sector.

And from when we started, before we registered as an organisation, we spent a lot of time going out and speaking to different people.

charities and understanding how this could support them would this work do they have any kind of feedback or ideas for us and it was we were quick to realize that really having really strong trusted relationships was going to be essential and we felt that having a having charity status and being registered as a non-profit was something that could really help us establish that trust because it just made um it really just enshrined our mission and vision for the organization

No, it was good.

And I think for us, what also really makes us a social enterprise is how we approach income and having a mix.

So we have more commercial relationships with some of the businesses that we work with where they will pay for us to deliver services.

good service around managing food redistribution for them to make sure that it's done safely, that they get good data, etc.

And they're established as a type of commercial relationship where we get income from that.

We also have other services.

We even have a food truck and a kitchen.

So for us, having about 50% of our income comes from

services that would be seen as more commercial, still all very impact led.

And then our income comes from philanthropy and grants as well.