Lack of access to information
The Edson Food Bank Society (EFBS) is a small, rural food bank serving 166 households each month run by a team of 32 volunteers.
Previously, they used recipe cards to capture community information, pulling client cards when they came in and adding the necessary details about their visit.
Food bank technology needed to secure funding
This paper-based process made it difficult to gather even simple data, like the number of people served, required for funding.
“Data is now an essential requirement when it comes to applying for any type of grant,” said Cheryl Luckwell, Volunteer Secretary of the Edson Food Bank Society.
The food bank recognized that to get the funding they need to help their community, automation and access to real-time data was critical.
More funding opportunities with Link2Feed
Now that they are using Link2Feed’s food bank technology, they can run reports to secure funding in less than a minute, eliminate human error in data collection and reduce the chance of information getting lost because of cards being misfiled.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 global pandemic in 2020, they were able to use Link2Feed to provide a local school lunch program, who had excess funding, with community data on children in need, resulting in the food bank receiving additional financial resources.
Link2Feed’s food bank technology also improved the food bank’s ability to capture notes for each client, personalizing and improving the dignity of the food banking experience in their community.
“Local industry and organizations… only have so much money to go around. So, to determine who gets a piece of the pie, potential donors request very specific kinds of data. Link2Feed makes it easier for us volunteers to do our jobs. Now I just have to push a button and voilà, I get a single report in less than a minute. Link2Feed provides us with a greater capacity for change. – Cheryl Luckwell, Volunteer Secretary, Edson Food Bank Society.
Pictured: Fred Kuzmic, Edson Food Bank Society President, using Link2Feed
Originally published on Food Banks Canada. Kevin MacLellan, KM strategic.