Hi Friends,
Our journey to implement Link2Feed began two years ago. After one of our regular, yearly audits from the Northern Illinois Food Bank (NIFB) we learned that all pantries must go onto this system by 2027. As many of you know HSP is a partner pantry with the Northern Illinois Food Bank (NIFB.) Your donations allow us to purchase nutritious food that is greatly reduced in price from the cost at the grocery store. The NIFB also provides items free of charge due to grants they receive along with fresh produce which supplements the produce we purchase through your generous donations.
Link2Feed is an intake system used by the NIFB and member agencies to electronically collect information from the people we serve. It allows agencies to better understand who we are serving and their unique needs. It also makes it easier to plan resources and streamline operations as there are many reporting tools available. The wonderful thing is we will no longer have to gather data for a monthly report as information is electronically transmitted to the NIFB after families and seniors receive food and other important essentials.
The staff has been very busy speaking with families and seniors to share information on Link2Feed and to gather all their information to setup in the system. Staff has also gone to training at the NIFB and employees from the agency have also been to HSP to help prepare us for the onboarding process.
It has been quite a journey and on August 12th we had our Official Go Live!
The staff took turns outside at the check in table, greeting families and seniors. And my granddaughter Ellie even joined in, commanding the walkie talkie after her afternoon snack
It was a terrific day, and the weeks since we went live has gone great too.
At the end of the day, the staff was thrilled that it all went well. Matthew, from the NIFB was very happy with the go live and when he told us we "successfully launched" all the staff cheered. He told us the implementation went so smoothly because of all the planning, along with gathering and entering of information from the families and seniors prior to our go live date. We were happy to have Matthew with us to field questions from the staff and to be a huge support while we onboarded.
The staff worked very hard to get here two years ahead of the deadline. We are thankful for all the support from the incredible Link2Feed team from the NIFB for all they did to make this successful implementation possible.
Yours in love and service,
Kristin Senne
Executive Director
P.S.: If you would love to provide nutritious meals and essentials to children and seniors you can click HERE to give a secure gift online.
