Why
Online Ordering: An Introduction to Agency Express and How
it
Will Help to Alleviate Hunger in
Connecticut
In
working towards its mission to alleviate hunger Connecticut
Food Bank seeks to distribute food to those in need in the
most efficient and effective ways possible. Over the course
of the 25 years that the food bank has been serving members
of the Connecticut community it has been necessary for the
food bank to adapt and modernize the process of food
distribution to accommodate the changing times and to
continue to maximize efficiency. To this aim the
Connecticut Food Bank has decided to transition from a
traditional shopping method of distributing food to program
partner agencies to a system of online ordering called
Agency Express.
Agency Express will work like any other online shopping
system. Program shoppers will have a user name and password
to log into the system. Then once in the system shoppers
will be able to browse the available inventory, select the
items they desire, and place their order. Shoppers will
specify in their order when they will come to pick it up or
for our Northeast programs the date of delivery. When the
program’s shopper arrives at the food bank or the delivery
site the order will be ready to load into the vehicle.
According to Aidmatrix and America’s Second Harvest the
desired impact of Agency Express is to provide our program
partners with “increased volume, variety and quality of
food – due to faster inventory turns and better visibility
and access to demand information.”
Member agencies of the Connecticut Food Bank will benefit
from the implementation and use of Agency Express in the
following ways: Agency Express should increase the
visibility of inventory, increase the flow of inventory
through the warehouse, save time on the part of agency
shoppers, and reduce the amount of manual labor required by
program shoppers.
We at Connecticut Food Bank are excited about implementing
Agency Express. We appreciate your adaptability and
patience in working with us as we make this transition.