Food For Thought Case Study

Third Sector

Food for Thought is a foodbank service based in West Dunbartonshire, established in 2014 with the goal to alleviate food poverty for the most vulnerable people in the community.

JavaScript, jQuery, ASP.net, AWS Lamda, DynamoDB

Challenge

Solution

The old system that Food for Thought were using involved manually recording foodbank user details for each visit, on paper and excel sheets. This system was highly time consuming for both staff and foodbank users and meant that monthly reporting, searching for users and gathering data on user dependencies was challenging.

Further, requiring foodbank users to provide personal details on each visit created extra stress and anxiety around a foodbank visit, which is already a difficult task for many. Food for Thought needed a system that could hold and easily retrieve user data and alleviate any stress for foodbank users. 

Result

Initial discussions between Pulsion and Food for Thought identified the problems with foodbank users having to register their details on each repeat visit and the difficulty of storing and retrieving user data. Pulsion first produced a user story and then identified and wireframed the screens required for a new system. The system produced by Pulsion is a responsive web application, hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It’s securely accessible by all Food for Thought volunteers and those that require the foodbank services. It offers custom forms for registering individuals and custom reporting which can be extracted to a CSV, while keeping to the Food For Thought brand and style guidelines. This system now means that foodbank users are only required to register once, their details will be stored and can be retrieved for subsequent visits.

The digital transformation of Food for Thought’s operations has resulted in a case management system that is more secure than the previous paper and excel-based system and is much more efficient for viewing and recording notes on foodbank user files. It has also made it easier for staff to see, edit, track and record foodbank users and the additional calendar function allows the team to track daily activities with ease.

This solution has an impact on the individuals and families of foodbank users, vastly increasing the speed at which people can get the food and support they need, mitigating anxiety and improving the experience of visiting a foodbank. Pulsion continue to support Food for Thought’s new system with any issues or additional requirements.