Local firms help the food bank deliver hundreds of thousands of pounds of food to agencies servicing communities challenged with hunger
ATLANTA, GA – MARCH 2, 2016 – BlueFletch, LLC and Catavolt, Inc. today announced the results of a joint initiative to mobilize the operations of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. BlueFletch, a mobile technology consultancy serving large enterprise organizations, used Catavolt’s secure rapid mobile app development platform to modernize and mobilize the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s warehouse operations. BlueFletch and Catavolt donated their services to the food bank at no charge so the food bank could better serve its community without incurring additional costs.
The Atlanta Community Food Bank connects over 750,000 people each year with more than 61 million pounds of food. Under the strain to expand rapidly to serve a growing market and better serve its agencies, the food bank was looking for innovative approaches to order fulfillment. Relying on an outdated ERP system with no easy path to upgrade, the food bank was looking for ways to make better use of their existing technology infrastructure.
BlueFletch and Catavolt approached the food bank with a solution: Deploy mobile apps into internal warehouse operations to drive efficiency, and connect agencies through their own mobile app to check food inventory, place orders and schedule pickups.
Thanks to the accelerated development capabilities of the Catavolt rapid mobile app development platform, BlueFletch was able to deploy mobile apps to the food bank in a matter of weeks. In its past year of operation, the food bank has worked with Catavolt to train its own internal staff to create apps themselves.
“We are hearing from many of our partner agencies that they love Mobile Harvest as a new means of placing their orders for food and grocery products at the Food Bank,” said Atlanta Community Food Bank President & CEO Kyle Waide. “We already have 133 orders created in Mobile Harvest totaling 389,434 pounds. It’s this kind of innovation that empowers our agencies to gain in efficiency to provide more nutritious food for the hungry in their communities.”
“Having the app on my smart phone gives me the ability to check the Food Bank’s inventory more frequently throughout the day so I can see when the items we need to order are available,” said Kathy Shrader, Meals Coordinator, Meals on Wheels of Coweta. “Vegetables, fruits, pastas and grains are the biggest things we look for. We use these as the side items for the meals we deliver to complete a healthy meal. With some of our senior clients, it may be the only meal they receive for the day. So the best, nutritious meal we can provide is crucial. The app gives me the advantage when I’m ordering food from the Food Bank. I love using the app.”
“With no prior knowledge of Catavolt, I was able to develop and deploy Catavolt apps to meet the needs of the business within a month,” said Patrick McGlynn, a business analyst at BlueFletch. “By avoiding writing custom code, fixes were as simple as changing settings in Extender and there were never issues with app stability. Catavolt’s seamless integration into the ERP made it possible for ACFB to have a mobile presence with limited resources.”
“Every day our primary goal at Catavolt is to help our customers out-mobilize their competition,” said Eric Martin, vice president of marketing at Catavolt. “Partnering with BlueFletch on this project was just one way to help the Atlanta Community Food Bank out-mobilize hunger in the communities they serve.”
About the Atlanta Community Food Bank
The Atlanta Community Food Bank is one of the largest hunger relief organizations in the Southeast. We support a network of 600 partner nonprofits – community and faith-based organizations – across 29 counties in greater Atlanta and north Georgia. Together, we connect over 750,000 people each year with more than 61 million pounds of food – or more than 50 million meals. But our work isn’t just about food – it’s about community change. We engage, educate and empower the community to fight hunger. The transformational change we catalyze in the community leads to transformational change in the lives of our clients.
About BlueFletch
BlueFletch is a boutique mobile technology consulting firm located in midtown Atlanta. BlueFletch has been building quality mobile solutions for the enterprise since 2008. Our team of highly qualified developers has built hundreds of apps for some of the most complex systems in the world. We build innovative mobile solutions for real-world business problems. More information about BlueFletch can be found at www.bluefletch.com.
About Catavolt
Catavolt’s rapid mobile app development platform helps organizations drive operational excellence with mobile apps. We help companies create apps quickly, that are fast and personalized for users, secure and manageable for IT, and create meaningful outcomes for the business in 60 days or less at a fraction of the cost of traditional development approaches. For more information, visit www.catavolt.com.
