Food Finders, Inc.

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

Since we do not serve food insecure people directly, we survey our recipient agencies annually to assess our program effectiveness and gain feedback from their clientele on how to improve our program to meet their basic needs. Our mission is to eliminate hunger and food waste while improving nutrition in food insecure communities, and our recipient agencies help us fulfill our mission by connecting the food we receive to their food insecure clients.

How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), via our Recipient Agency Coordinators,

How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

What significant change resulted from feedback?

Due to the pandemic, many of our agencies have struggled with their own volunteer base and/or staff drivers to help receive the donated food via our program. We have been able to assign our own community volunteers to take over those food rescue routes, and help our recipient agencies make sure they continue to receive donated food assigned to benefit their program.

With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,

How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?

Our agencies know they have an ally in Food Finders. We are not only a resource for them to receive free food, but our Partner Agency Coordinators also mentor them as they develop their food distribution programs, or as they struggled to overcome the impact of the pandemic, we helped many of them pivot to grab-and-go food distributions.

Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded,

What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, Many of our agencies are very small and collecting data/using technology is a challenge for them,