Bulk Donations Feature Ready to Launch

Bulk food donations are ready! That’s right folks. After being tested in Community Food Rescue’s (CFR) ChowMatch matching program, the new bulk donation feature is ready for use by all network members. What this means is that when food donor businesses and farmers have large quantities of food to donate, it can be distributed widely among all CFR food assistance providers, even if the organizations can only take small quantities of food. “We are very excited that food assistance organizations can now choose available food items from their ChowMatch accounts,” said Tricia Thomas, Manna’s Food Resources Coordinator. To learn about this new Chowmatch feature and our testing phase, click here.

Here is how the Bulk Donations feature works:

Donors

When you have one or more bulk items of more than 400 lbs. to donate, you can now create a bulk donation in ChowMatch. Once you login to your ChowMatch account, click on the Donor dropdown menu; chose Bulk Food Donation Offer. Fill out the form. Once a Manna staff member reviews the offer for accuracy, ChowMatch will send an email notice of this offer to all active CFR Food Assistance Providers, currently at 115 member organizations.

Food Assistance Providers

You will receive an email notification that there is food available for request. In your ChowMatch account, under the recipient dropdown menu, select “Available Food for Donation.” The available items, amounts, and packaging will be listed on the screen. Also, the timeframe of this offer will be listed. On the request form, fill in the amount desired, select a date and time within the listed timeframe, and whether you can pick up the items or need a delivery. Note that if a pickup is requested, volunteer food runners can generally take a maximum of 400 lbs. ChowMatch will automatically track requests and close the donation offer once the total inventory of offered items has been requested.

Volunteers

You will receive email notices of bulk donation food runs just like all the other food run opportunities. You can also find available food runs in your ChowMatch account. Once you login, click on Volunteer; Available Food Runs. You may notice several food runs originating from the same donor when there is a large bulk donation offer. Feel free to accept as many food runs as you wish and have capacity to transport.

ChowMatch will create food runs, and donors and food assistance providers will be notified via email confirmation. If a volunteer food runner is requested, the confirmation will be sent once a volunteer accepts the food run.

If you have any questions about this new ChowMatch feature, please reach out to Tricia Thomas, Food Resources Coordinator, at tricia@mannafood.org  or by phone: 240-268-2502