24/7 Access Refrigerated Locker Integration for Food Pantries
Through our partnerships with the leading refrigerated locker manufacturers, SmartChoice is able to integrate its food pantry online ordering software platform with the corresponding software systems of almost any refrigerated locker available. The result is that if your food pantry has or is considering purchasing a refrigerated food locker(s), with SmartChoice your food pantry’s clients can place grocery orders online and seamlessly be able to pick up their orders whenever they want, 24/7, and from a location that is much closer and more convenient to their homes and/or places or work.
Refrigerated lockers allow food pantries to greatly expand breadth of access and serve more people for two significant reasons.
First, unlike food pantries themselves which are only open limited hours a day and days per week, making it difficult for many clients to visit due to conflicting work and life schedules, refrigerated lockers are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Therefore, someone who works a 9 to 5 schedule and is unable to shop at a food pantry during its midday hours, can instead select to pick up their food orders from a locker which they can access at any time day or night.
Secondly, lockers can be strategically placed geographically in locations far more convenient to food pantry clients than just the single location of the food pantry itself. They can be placed in several different neighborhoods, spread around the entire geographic region which the food pantry serves. The lockers can be placed inside or outside of community centers, schools, hospitals, churches, government buildings, and even along key mass transit routes/stops/stations in which people commute to and from work.
Additionally, refrigerated lockers allow food pantries to further expand their reach to clients who do not have access to consistent and reliable transportation. By placing lockers in high population density locations within reasonable walking/biking/scooter distance to people’s homes, clients who would otherwise struggle to be able to shop at food pantries from a logistical perspective, would then be able to do so as a result of the vastly improved proximity to their homes.
With SmartChoice’s direct integration with the food locker software systems, a pantry client who places an online food order now has far more options available to them to select from for how they wish to receive their orders. Instead of just pickup at the food pantry itself (and home delivery, if offered by the pantry – and also integrated with SmartChoice), a client using SmartChoice can also choose from within SmartChoice’s digital ordering platform a refrigerated locker option if that better suits them.
The entire process is seamless for both the client shoppers as well as for the food pantry staff and volunteers. Through its direct integration with the locker manufacturers’ software, SmartChoice is able to automatically determine in real time what locker space is available at each locker location and for which particular time slots. SmartChoice is also able to determine if ADA compliant (e.g.- lower level accessible) lockers are currently occupied or scheduled to be occupied by other orders, or if they are available/open for a client who requests them – all using the SmartChoice software.
Schedule a Demo
For more information and/or to view a live demo of SmartChoice’s direct integration with 24/7 access refrigerated food lockers and how specifically this functionality would work for your food pantry contact a SmartChoice representative now.