New online platform helps food banks track data

Food banks across New Brunswick may soon have an online platform to help them better support their clients and community. 

The idea behind the Smart Food Security platform began with Milad Pirayegar, a doctoral student at UNB Saint John who wanted to develop a platform to help with social issues. 

Acting dean of business Rob Moir said he encouraged Pirayegar to work with the Saint John Community Food Basket to learn how they operated. 

"I said, 'Milad, why don't you go and visit with them and ask how can we help release that data, how can we make that data more available to public servants and to us as academics to see what we could do.'" 

Better understanding

Pirayegar said the web-based platform can be used by food bank staff and volunteers to improve their understanding of their target groups and their needs. 

"They can register their target groups on this platform to collect some useful data and secondly to have a better understanding of their inventory, their inputs and their outputs," he said.

Pirayegar said the most significant feature of Smart Food Security is that it generates data in real time. 

"This is the most important thing about our platform," he said.  

On a day-to-day basis, Moir said the data will show what preferences clients have and how the food bank can adjust to accommodate it. 

"We've seen more and more food banks say, 'Please just give us a donation of money so we can go out and make that dollar go farther than you could.'" 

The platform will also give information back to the food bank to show what is moving fast in their inventory and what's not so they will know where to direct their purchasing.

Developed uniquely for food banks

Pirayegar said the platform is only for food banks and is based on their specific needs. 

It was developed as part of the doctoral student's thesis. Before he began work on it, Pirayegar said he looked at different provincial and federal poverty reduction projects. 

"I realized that most of them relied on one single factor or just some limited indicators like income." 

Pirayegar says the platform needs to be tested to work out the bugs. It is being used by the Saint John Community Food Basket in a pilot project. 

"Then hopefully we could extend the area of our thesis," he said, with a goal to have it in all food banks within two months. 

Work together

Moir said the data can be used to build better public policy and it will also help determine the needs within a population. 

"I think this is a good way for food banks to … work together on the problem as opposed to an institution here in the city and an institution across city." 

Jane Buckley from the Oromocto Food Bank said this platform will not only help food banks with tracking for inventory purposes, it will also provide good statistics to use in grant applications. 

"In our pleas to the government, I think it will be very helpful to have that information." 

Buckley said she sees the platform as win-win for the food banks, clients and community.