Multi-site Pantry Support

The first question to answer here is "What is a multisite pantry?".

There are two ways to answer this question and the most obvious answer is your group or organization owns and runs multiple pantries in different locations. FoodBank Manager allows you manage your pantries from one location using local level or global rules to determine how each pantry operates. You can also set it up so visit information is shared between each pantry and recurring visits by your guests (clients) can be control.

This is often referred to as "Pantry Hopping". What this means is there are some people that need assistance and they get it but they do not abuse it. This is a fair distribution method and when everything runs perfect no one is left out or turned away due to a lack of supplies to hand out. But there are also a few who attend as many Pantries as they can to collect a massive amount of resources (food and services) for whatever their reasons are. The problem stems from the fact that your resources and supplies are already limited and stretched so far that you likely have to start turning away people that need assistance. So having control over your resources and doing all you can to make sure that your services are applied fairly and that you are reaching as many people as you can is just part of being a good steward of what is entrusted to you.

The second way to answer this is how Food Banks (Big Distributer Banks) are purchasing multiple copies of FoodBank Manager and making them available to their partner pantries. This provides many benefits to both the pantry and the parent FoodBank. The biggest plus for the pantry is that you have a set standard you use to process your visits with, a set standard to handle all of your reporting which makes your partner bank extremely happy. But using FoodBank Manager is so very easy and will help you run your pantry from head to toe, you will find you have so much more time on your hands that can be filled with doing what you used to do before you got so busy running your Pantry. The Food Banks benefit by you being much happier. The Food Banks develop a better understanding of the resources. What changes need to be made to better distribute the resources. What resources need to be phased out and which new ones need to be instituted. There are just so many plusses to this arrangement and if you want to learn more about the benefits for Food Banks and your pantry click here. Benefits of a Partnership using FoodBank Manager

Associations

Associations are a hybrid setup that allows multiple privately owned Food Pantries track visits and regulate the "Pantry Hopping" problem throughout the participating association members. Associations are completely voluntary, and each pantry that wants to be apart of this setup has to be invited and intentionally join the association request. Private information is completely private because no information about the guest is passed between the participating pantries. Only the visit and only if that guest is already in your system. There is a lot that can be done with the Association setup and those that use associations are very happy with the results.