Your Voices Guide our Efforts
Our tremendous thanks to our Neighbors who trust us with their voices and their stories. Your feedback is not just information to us; it is a vital part of our mission. At Feeding Families, we believe that listening to those we serve is essential to truly understanding and meeting their needs. The stories and experiences you share allow us to see our services through your eyes and to identify areas where we can improve.
Through this report and the actions that follow, we aim to honor that trust. We recognize that each comment reflects your lived experience and offers us a unique opportunity to make a difference. Whether it’s improving the quality of our food, enhancing the reservation system, or ensuring that our staff and volunteers provide the utmost respect and care, your voices guide our efforts.
We take your feedback seriously, and it allows the opportunity to create a better, more responsive food bank that truly supports the dignity and well-being of every individual who walks through our doors. We are committed to making changes that reflect your needs and suggestions because we understand that honoring your voices is crucial to our success and your satisfaction. Thank you for helping us grow and for allowing us to serve you to the best of our ability.
What We Heard
Overall Experience, Praise, and Gratitude
We have received numerous expressions of gratitude and praise for our services. Many of you highlighted the friendliness and helpfulness of our staff and volunteers and shared how our services have been a blessing in challenging times. A few comments pointed out feelings of being rushed or judged during your visits.
Waitwell System
The new Waitwell reservation system garnered a mix of reactions. Many appreciated its efficiency and convenience, finding it a significant improvement. Yet, some struggled with the technology and felt the appointment system wasn’t always fair.
Quantity and Variety of Food
While many of you were satisfied with the variety and quality of food, others expressed concerns. Some noted that specific items ran out quickly, the food distribution wasn’t even throughout the day, or you couldn’t find foods that met your dietary needs.
Staff and Volunteers
Feedback about our staff and volunteers was mostly positive, with a focus on their kindness and respectfulness. Some detailed negative interactions where individuals felt unfairly targeted or judged.
Produce Table, Limits, and Other Shoppers
Frustration about how other shoppers use the produce table and respect food limits were common complaints. This has led to conflict among shoppers and negative shopping experiences.
Food Requests and Suggestions
Your requests included specific items like gluten-free products, personal hygiene items, and dairy-free milk. Suggestions were made for improving produce handling, the check-in process, and providing more recipes or cooking instructions.
What We Are Doing
Overall Experience
We are prioritizing consistent training and reminders for our staff and volunteers to ensure everyone is treated with kindness and respect, reducing feelings of being rushed or judged. We want everyone to feel welcome and safe in our pantry and know that we are happy you are here.
Waitwell System
We are continuously improving the Waitwell system based on your feedback, making it easier to access. At your request, we added the appointment link to the front page of our website and ironed out some of the technology glitches. Technology is still sometimes finicky, and we are learning how to trouble shoot faster to keep everything running on time. Some people had concerns about their lack of privacy with their name on the TV screen. We modified this to display the first name and initial of your last name. If this still makes you feel uncomfortable, please use an alias name you are comfortable having displayed on the TV when you make your reservation. It does not have to match your account information that you provide at check-in. You just have to come to the desk when that name on the TV is called, so remember what name you book with!
Quantity and Variety of Food
We are working on better distribution strategies to ensure everyone has access to a variety of food throughout the day. The reservation system has helped us be able to anticipate and even out the number of shoppers across the day, making it easier to manage inventory. We expect you’ll see less issues with this going forward. We are making sure food stays out on the floor for our neighbors with the last appointments of the day.
Food Requests and Suggestions
We are trying to fulfill specific product requests and, based on the high number of requests for gluten-free foods, we signed a contract with a gluten-free food donation partner this quarter. While we aim to fulfill requests, not all items are available due to supply constraints. We appreciate knowing what foods you would like to see so we can work to find suppliers for those products. We do our absolute best to source the foods you need, but sometimes there are limitations operating as a food bank – we rely heavily on donations and discounted products to be able to serve thousands of people each year.
What We Are Unable to Do at This Time
Produce Table, Limits, and Other Shoppers
We are exploring different possibilities and weighing options like changes to the layout of the pantry floor and process at the produce table to reduce bottlenecks, improve fairness, and making limit signage more visible and clearer. Options like structural changes to the facility will take time, and we appreciate your patience and understanding while we map out new ideas. We ask that shoppers be patient with each other and treat each other with respect, give each other space to shop, and inform a staff member if there is an issue. Please do not try to manage the situation yourself.
Quantity and Variety of Food
We can’t always guarantee the availability of specific items. We work hard to have as much food and variety as possible. We rely heavily on donated food from grocery stores and manufactures and sometime receive less food, meaning we have less food to give out. We have staff dedicated to working with our grocery partners letting them know the importance of the food they provide us; to help ensure we maintain an adequate supply at both our food pantries and across our network of partner agencies. Sometimes holidays may impact the amount or variety of foods available, because they don’t allow us to rescue food donations with our usual frequency.
Hours and Location
We heard that our hours and location aren’t convenient for some of you. We are not currently able to change our hours or expand to multiple locations due to staffing constraints and limitations with getting food to our pantry. We have an extensive network of Partner Agencies that offer the same high-quality foods. Please click on the food finder map on our website to see if a partner pantry’s hours or location might be more convenient for your schedule. This map can be translated into many languages!
Thank you for your continued feedback and support. Shoppers will continue to receive a link to a customer service survey after each shopping trip. We are committed to improving our services and ensuring that Feeding Families remains a valuable resource for all our neighbors.
