For food pantry managers
Neighbors pick the food they will actually eat. Volunteers pack from a printed list. Inventory and funder reports keep themselves up to date.
Choice, not a box.
Better inventory management comes first.
A partner agency signs a household in (optional).
They pick the items they will actually use, or a standard box with variations.
Volunteers scan barcodes or follow a printed list to pick and pack items.
Inventory and donor reports stay in sync automatically, which helps with funding applications.
A short walkthrough for food pantry managers.
The Problem
Intake, client choice ordering, inventory and reporting in one place.
HelpingHand runs the whole pantry in a browser. Neighbors register once and order what they will actually use, volunteers pick from a printed list, and what you ordered from the food bank is counted against what went out the door. Staff, volunteers, partner agencies and neighbors each see only what they need.
Most of a distribution goes on checking clipboards instead of talking to anyone. HelpingHand prints the pick list in aisle order, keeps the counts straight, and stops the same order being written down twice.
Inventory is counted as it arrives from the food bank, a retail rescue pickup or a food drive, and again as it goes out. What shows online is what is actually in the storeroom, and high-demand items can be capped so the first ten households do not clear them out.
Nobody should have to explain in line that their family cannot eat gluten, or that they have no way to cook a frozen turkey. Preferences are recorded once and honored every time, and the choosing happens in private on a phone.
HelpingHand runs the whole pantry in a browser. Neighbors register once and order what they will actually use, volunteers pick from a printed list, and what you ordered from the food bank is counted against what went out the door. Staff, volunteers, partner agencies and neighbors each see only what they need.
Most of a distribution goes on checking clipboards instead of talking to anyone. HelpingHand prints the pick list in aisle order, keeps the counts straight, and stops the same order being written down twice.
Inventory is counted as it arrives from the food bank, a retail rescue pickup or a food drive, and again as it goes out. What shows online is what is actually in the storeroom, and high-demand items can be capped so the first ten households do not clear them out.
Nobody should have to explain in line that their family cannot eat gluten, or that they have no way to cook a frozen turkey. Preferences are recorded once and honored every time, and the choosing happens in private on a phone.
Less waste, calmer distributions, and numbers your funders accept
Pick lists come off the system already sorted, so a shift is spent with neighbors rather than on paperwork.
Counted inventory and dated lots mean cans get used in the right order instead of being found expired at the back.
Diapers, formula and personal care stretch further when the system applies the limit instead of a volunteer having to say no.
Households served, pounds distributed, referral sources and repeat visits, exportable for a grant report or a board packet.
Long enough to learn it, and to become hard to give back. No IT staff required
Start with a free 30-day trial. Cancel any time. Call us if you have any questions or would like a quote.
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Questions we hear most often from US food pantries
Neighbors take only what their household will use, so less food comes back or goes in the trash. Volunteers pack to an order instead of guessing, which makes a distribution faster and quieter. And because every choice is recorded, you finally know what your community actually wants on the shelf.
Yes. Inventory is counted as it arrives, whether that is a food bank order, a retail rescue pickup or a food drive, and counted again as it goes out. That gives you the difference between what you brought in and what you distributed, which is the number most reports start from.
Households served, individuals reached, pounds distributed, referral sources and repeat visits, all exportable. It comes from the same records your distribution runs on, so a grant report does not mean reconstructing the year from sign-in sheets.
Each household registers once and is verified by a partner agency or by your own intake. The system recognizes an attempt to register again under a new name or address, tracks how much a household has taken against its allotment, and flags patterns worth a second look.
Most of what a volunteer touches is a printed pick list. Everything else is a photo and a checkbox. Inventory photos can be taken on a phone, out of stock items disappear on their own, and nobody has to learn a spreadsheet.
We are a New Zealand company working with food pantries across the US. Email is the fastest way to reach us and we answer within one business day.
Milford,
Auckland 0620,
New Zealand
Monday - Friday
9:00am - 5:00pm New Zealand time