Food Bank Software for Referrals, Stock and Volunteer Rotas, Built with AI

Mythex lets a food bank build its own referral portal for partner agencies, stock tracking by category and best-before date, parcel templates that deduct stock by household size, and a volunteer rota people fill themselves. You describe how your food bank runs, check it in a live preview, and publish it with a real database.

What a food bank needs to keep running

Food arrives in uneven waves: supermarket collection bins, a school harvest festival, a business donating a pallet. It has to be sorted, date-checked and shelved by volunteers before each session, and counted on a clipboard so the coordinator knows what can go out. On the other side, referral agencies send households with a size and dietary needs, and the parcel has to fit. Demand climbs in winter and school holidays, exactly when volunteers are scarce. Paper and spreadsheets work until a session runs out of tinned meat with forty parcels still to pack. Software helps when stock, referrals and volunteers sit in one place.

Referrals submitted by partner agencies with household size and dietary needs
Stock by category with best-before dates, oldest out first
Standard parcels by household size that deduct stock as packed
Volunteer shifts with roles that need training
A most-needed list for donors, updated weekly
Figures funders ask for: parcels, people helped, volunteer hours

What you can build for food banks

A referral portal for partner agencies

Each agency, such as a housing officer, a school or a GP surgery, gets its own login, submits referrals with household size, dietary needs and collection or delivery, and sees only its own referrals and their status. Ask only for what you need to pack a suitable parcel; less personal data means less to protect and a faster referral.

Build a referral portal for my food bank. Each partner agency has its own login and submits referrals with a referral number, number of adults and children, dietary needs, and collection session or delivery. Agencies see only their own referrals and status. Food bank staff see all referrals for each session.

Stock counted as parcels are packed, not with a clipboard

Log donations as they arrive by category, source and best-before date. Define standard parcels for one, two, three to four and five-plus people, and each packed parcel deducts its contents. Chilled and frozen stock sit on their own list. The coordinator sees what will run short before the next session.

Create a stock app for a food bank. Log donations in by category, source and best-before date. Define parcel templates by household size that deduct stock when packed. Show stock by category with weeks of supply at current usage, and highlight items within 30 days of their best-before date.

A volunteer rota people sign up to themselves

Volunteers pick shifts for sorting, packing, distribution and driving, with roles that need warehouse or safeguarding training shown only to those trained. A reminder the day before, sent through an email or messaging account you connect, cuts no-shows. Coordinators see gaps for school holiday weeks early.

Make a volunteer rota for my food bank with shifts for sorting, packing, distribution and driving. Volunteers log in and sign up themselves; driving and warehouse shifts are only open to volunteers marked as trained. Show coordinators unfilled shifts for the next two weeks.

A website that explains how to get help, gently

Say plainly how referrals work, who can refer, when sessions run and what to bring, in words that do not make anyone feel judged, and in the main languages spoken locally. Put drop-off points and a short most-needed list on the home page and change it weekly.

Build a website for our food bank with a 'Get help' page explaining referrals and session times in plain language, a 'Donate food' page with drop-off points and a most-needed list I can update weekly, a volunteer sign-up form, and an Arabic and Polish version of the help page.

Weeks of supply by category, and the numbers funders ask for

Show how many weeks of each category you hold at current usage, so you know to appeal for tinned fish rather than pasta. Add parcels by week and household size, donations by source and volunteer hours per month, the figures most funders and annual reports need.

Make a dashboard for a food bank showing parcels given out per week by household size, weeks of supply per stock category, donations received by source this month, and total volunteer hours per month.

Collection days staffed in two-hour slots

For supermarket collections and community food drives, volunteers sign up for short slots at a specific store, which makes shifts easier to fill. Each event page shows location, times and what to collect.

Create a sign-up page for supermarket collection days at our food bank. Each collection has several stores, each with two-hour volunteer slots and a maximum of three volunteers per slot. Show the most-needed list on the page.

Personal data about people in need

Referral details describe people in hard circumstances: household makeup, health-related diets, sometimes the reason for referral. Keep them separate from donor and volunteer records, behind login, with each agency limited to its own referrals and volunteers seeing only what they need to pack. Delete or anonymise old referrals on a schedule you choose. Mythex builds the app; you remain responsible for the data protection and food safety rules where you operate.

Collect only what you need to pack a parcel
Per-agency access on every referral
Clients' data kept apart from donor records

From clipboard to app, one session at a time

Start with stock. Run one count the old way, enter it, then pack the next session from the parcel templates and compare the remaining stock with a quick count afterwards. When the numbers agree, open the referral portal to one or two partner agencies before inviting the rest. The volunteer rota can launch alongside, since it does not depend on the others.

Questions

Can partner agencies submit referrals online?

Yes. Each agency gets its own login to submit and track only its own referrals. Because the details are sensitive, limit access tightly and check the data rules that apply where you operate.

Can volunteers sign up for shifts on their phones?

Yes. The rota is a web app that works in any phone browser. Reminder emails or texts need an email or messaging service connected with your own account.

Can it show donors what we need most?

Yes. Ask for a most-needed list on the website that you update in the admin, or one calculated from the categories running lowest in stock.

Can we take money donations?

Yes, by linking a donation or payment provider you set up under your own organisation's account. The page can show the appeal goal and progress.

Is it free for a charity?

Start free, without a card, using the daily credits to build and publish. Pro is $25/month and adds a custom domain, code editing and export; there is no separate charity plan.

By kind of app

Build with AI · Templates · Start building free