Administrative challenges lead to meal waste
ThruGuidance is an SFSP sponsor serving over 40,000 meals each summer across 17 sites in the Los Angeles area through their Nutritious Life Meals Program.
Their previous paper-based system meant they could only access data from sites on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, preventing them from adjusting meal counts throughout the week and leading to over $10,000 in meal waste each summer.
Using Link2Feed’s software for nonprofits to reduce waste
Now that they’re using Link2Feed’s software for nonprofits, sites can track their meal service data on mobile phones in real-time. They include details on when the vendor delivered the meal, how many meals they received and the number of children receiving meals. Link2Feed then automatically calculates meal waste based on this activity.
ThruGuidance’s Nutritious Life Meals Program reviews this data daily and works with their meal vendor to adjust their orders every other day.
Most profitable program year
ThruGuidance was able to reduce meal waste by 8% and save $10,000 using Link2Feed’s software for nonprofits. Claim submission time was also cut in half, saving valuable administrative time and allowing Nutritious Life to provide higher quality service to their sites.
Their sites see Link2Feed as a value-add for choosing ThruGuidance as their sponsor, which has helped with site recruitment and retention, further contributing to their program growth.
ThruGuidance reports that their first summer using Link2Feed’s software for nonprofits was the most profitable year of the program, and they believe the software will allow them to double their site count in the next year without adding any new staff.
“Joining Link2Feed was the best thing that happened to our SFSP program! If each of our sites saves waste from three meals each month, the system pays for itself and then some! We love the live access to meal counts and how the data allows us to be more efficient with our time and our meals. Thanks to Link2Feed, we will be able to double our reach in the coming year without incurring additional staffing costs- which means helping more kids in our community!”– Courtney Lockridge, Director of Nutrition Services, ThruGuidance Inc.