Link2Feed, a leading provider of software to food banks and food pantries, is poised to help hunger relief orgs deliver on home deliveries through a partnership with DoorDash.
Link2Feed customers — there are about 12,000 of them — will be able to access the same software DoorDash uses to manage home deliveries. They’ll be able to assign volunteers or paid DoorDash drivers to make deliveries, optimize routes, and see in real time when deliveries have been made.
The software integration, in pilot now and expected to be available in August, is well-timed to meet growing demand among food-bank clients for home delivery services. Prodded by Covid, hunger relief orgs that never expected to get into home delivery have begun making the service a permanent feature of their programming.
“Now that home delivery programs have been refined, it’s time for technology to help with that push,” said Emily Branton, CEO of Ontario-based Link2Feed, which at its core helps food banks and pantries manage their clients, food inventories, and reporting.
A related upgrade to Link2Feed is the addition of a volunteer management feature, made possible through a recent partnership with InitLive, a provider of volunteer management software. Announced in April, clients can add the solution to their existing Link2Feed licenses, allowing them to move away from the mix of emails, spreadsheets, Google forms and texts many have been relying on to manage volunteers.
The increased automation comes at a time when volunteer jobs and requirements have been morphing in response to Covid, pointing to a need for new, younger volunteers. “Covid pushed us over the line to execute on that partnership,” Branton said, ending what had been a five-year search for a volunteer management system that met all of Link2Feed’s requirements.
Food banks can use the software to easily sign up volunteers and more quickly communicate any updates or changes. According to Chris Courneya, CEO of InitLive, the software can reduce the time spent on volunteer management by 70% and decrease volunteer sign-up time by 60%. Custom pricing starts at $49 a month for a single location.
Both Link2Feed and InitLive are Certified B Corporations, which requires them to meet certain standards related to putting social mission at the forefront of their work. Link2Feed has been recognized as one of the top 10% of all Certified B Corps in the world. Last February, it became part of San Francisco-based Alpine Investors, the country’s only Certified B private equity firm.
Also partly in response to Covid, Link2Feed last June introduced the ability for clients to create their own profiles and sign up for services from home, rather than go through the intake process onsite. At-home sign-ups make for a smoother experience once clients show up at the pantry, and also helped with social distancing during Covid, Branton said.
As an upgrade to the client intake process, Link2Feed is also adding an assessment of a client’s ability to enter the workforce. “One of our goals is to keep track of an action step and set incremental follow-ups to demonstrate outcomes,” Branton said.
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