Carambola Reflects on a Milestone Year: 2024 in Review

2024 has been a monumental year for Carambola, filled with growth, celebration, and exciting developments. Here’s a look back at the highlights that made this year so special:

Celebrating 21 Years Young!

We hit a major milestone this year—our 21st birthday! Since our humble beginnings, Carambola has grown to serve over 150,000 meals weekly. We loved celebrating our birthday with the team, and our pink cake!

New Look, New Brand, New Website

2024 was all about glow-ups! We launched Carambola’s revamped brand and sleek new website, offering an enhanced experience for schools, parents, and partners.

A New Look for Our HQ

Our Limerick HQ got a fabulous facelift with bright, cheerful signage that now matches the energy inside!

Growth in Schools and Staff

This year, we onboarded 143 new schools to the Carambola family, expanding our reach and welcoming their students into our community. To meet growing demand, our team grew significantly, increasing from 200 to 300 dedicated staff members.

Branded Vans on the Roads

Have you spotted our sleek, branded vans zipping across Ireland? These beauties are helping us deliver meals in style.

Expansion of the Hot School Meals Programme

2024 was a monumental year for the Hot School Meals Programme, with the government expanding its reach to an additional 168 primary schools, ensuring over 345,000 primary school children across Ireland now have access to nutritious hot meals. We’re proud to stand alongside educators and policymakers in helping children thrive. Here’s to making an even bigger impact as the programme aims to reach all remaining primary schools in the years ahead!

Meeting Minister Catherine Martin

A highlight of the year was meeting Minister Catherine Martin in Sligo—an inspiring moment for our team as we continue to make a positive impact nationwide. The Minister helped us open the Carambola Playground at one of our Our Lady of Mercy school in Sligo.

A Successful Day at the Irish Primary Principals Network Expo!

Recently Carambola participated in the IPPN (Irish Primary Principals Network) event held in the Gleneagle hotel in Killarney – This is our 16th year exhibiting at IPPN! This year we sponsored our branded lanyards for all attendees. This gathering brings together school principals and education leaders from across Ireland, providing a platform for networking. Our four large stands were a vibrant hub of activity! Every year we create a Carambola Café where Principals can come to sit and chat with us or simply enjoy a coffee with their friends. We try to bring something unique to our stand each year and this year it was an ice cream machine where Principals were able to have a 99! As always, we had our coffee machine churning out cappuccinos and lattes all day. This yearly event gives us a unique opportunity to engage directly with our client and new principals, to understand their specific requirements and discuss how our services could integrate seamlessly into their schools. Feedback this year was overwhelmingly positive, with many attendees expressing interest in adopting our solutions for their students and schools.