Animal Welfare Professionals

Our food bank clients come to our facility to pick up food so when they arrive, we have them sign in on a piece of paper. We just ask for their name and the number of cats/dogs that we are helping with on the paper. (It's literally just 3 columns.) We verbally ask them if their pets are altered because it is a requirement to utilize the food bank. If they aren't, we don't deny them, but we ask about their plans for getting them altered and provide resources to help with the cost of the alteration. (We have a low cost clinic and voucher program.)  Those sheets are then tallied at the end of every month, quarter, and year.

Do you keep track of how much food is given to each person/pet? Is that the third column? 

Our food bank clients come to our facility to pick up food so when they arrive, we have them sign in on a piece of paper. We just ask for their name and the number of cats/dogs that we are helping with on the paper. (It's literally just 3 columns.) We verbally ask them if their pets are altered because it is a requirement to utilize the food bank. If they aren't, we don't deny them, but we ask about their plans for getting them altered and provide resources to help with the cost of the alteration. (We have a low cost clinic and voucher program.)  Those sheets are then tallied at the end of every month, quarter, and year.

We use a combination of our shelter software, ShelterLuv, and Excel spreadsheets for this. The spreadsheet columns are: Last name, First name, ShelterLuv ID #, # of cats, LBs of cat food, Cans, Lbs of litter, # of dogs, Lbs of dog food, Cans, S/N?, Notes

Notes is where we put things like if any of their pets has a chicken allergy, or how big their dogs are, or if their cat doesn't have any teeth left and can't eat kibble, etc

We maintain a "master list" of everyone who has been approved for the program and each month we make a copy where we can fill in what was actually given out that month. So when someone picks up food we add it to the spreadsheet and also put it into ShelterLuv so we have an ongoing record that adoptions/admissions staff can also see, and where we can make notes about that individual's situation to help us serve them more effectively.

We do let folks pick up if they haven't filled out an application, but we ask them to either do a paper copy or the online version before they come back for a second pickup. The application is mostly just their contact info and some info about their pets. We also ask what gov't assistance programs they receive help from and what forms of transportation they have access to so that we can help them find other resources.

We use a combination of our shelter software, ShelterLuv, and Excel spreadsheets for this. The spreadsheet columns are: Last name, First name, ShelterLuv ID #, # of cats, LBs of cat food, Cans, Lbs of litter, # of dogs, Lbs of dog food, Cans, S/N?, Notes

Notes is where we put things like if any of their pets has a chicken allergy, or how big their dogs are, or if their cat doesn't have any teeth left and can't eat kibble, etc

We maintain a "master list" of everyone who has been approved for the program and each month we make a copy where we can fill in what was actually given out that month. So when someone picks up food we add it to the spreadsheet and also put it into ShelterLuv so we have an ongoing record that adoptions/admissions staff can also see, and where we can make notes about that individual's situation to help us serve them more effectively.

We do let folks pick up if they haven't filled out an application, but we ask them to either do a paper copy or the online version before they come back for a second pickup. The application is mostly just their contact info and some info about their pets. We also ask what gov't assistance programs they receive help from and what forms of transportation they have access to so that we can help them find other resources.

How are you using ShelterLuv Track food pantry items?

We use a combination of our shelter software, ShelterLuv, and Excel spreadsheets for this. The spreadsheet columns are: Last name, First name, ShelterLuv ID #, # of cats, LBs of cat food, Cans, Lbs of litter, # of dogs, Lbs of dog food, Cans, S/N?, Notes

Notes is where we put things like if any of their pets has a chicken allergy, or how big their dogs are, or if their cat doesn't have any teeth left and can't eat kibble, etc

We maintain a "master list" of everyone who has been approved for the program and each month we make a copy where we can fill in what was actually given out that month. So when someone picks up food we add it to the spreadsheet and also put it into ShelterLuv so we have an ongoing record that adoptions/admissions staff can also see, and where we can make notes about that individual's situation to help us serve them more effectively.

We do let folks pick up if they haven't filled out an application, but we ask them to either do a paper copy or the online version before they come back for a second pickup. The application is mostly just their contact info and some info about their pets. We also ask what gov't assistance programs they receive help from and what forms of transportation they have access to so that we can help them find other resources.