This food blog details a personal experience working within the food industry — specifically time spent at a food bank warehouse (Community Action Coalition of South Central Wisconsin), delivering pizzas for 15 years for Glass Nickel Pizza, and taking on the role of managing the Willy Street Co-op Deli.
Over a period of more than 20 years, through these various work experiences, what became fundamentally clear is this: more often than not, there exists a significant disconnect.
The Disconnect
This disconnect occurs between the excess food generated from various sources — bakeries, restaurants, and local farmers — and the final recipients who desperately need it: the food pantries and the food banks.
This lack of connection is a widespread issue. A lot of the time, those crucial connections are typically made in a very manual, one-by-one manner, requiring human-to-human interaction. This often involves a simple phone call or a direct text message. Over and over. Every week during the pantry's existence.
It is only in very rare, exceptional cases that these entities can achieve a level of automation for large, routine, and regular shipments. Even when automation occurs, it usually relies on basic technology like simple spreadsheets or sending out emails. Crucially, the practical application of technology to solve this systemic problem essentially stops right there.
Building the Bridge
Recognizing this significant gap and utilizing skills in software development and computer tech expertise, the initiative was taken to build a dedicated web application. That web app is madfoodloop.com. This website is owned and operated by SP Digital LLC, a Wisconsin-based limited liability company.
The primary purpose of this website is to efficiently connect the two main, essential parties in the food distribution chain: the producers who have excess food supplies and the pantries that are in need of that accessible surplus food.
The web application accomplishes this vital connection in a couple of different ways. One method is half-automated, providing a brief weekly text questionnaire process. The other method focuses on forming simple, single-click connections directly between the producer and the pantry.
The Unavoidable Hurdle
While building this web application, a major, unavoidable hurdle presented a real challenge. Connecting the two parties virtually within the digital environment of a website was one part of the problem, and that was solved. However, the physical reality of actually getting the excess food moved from Point A to Point B requires logistical support.
In an often significant number of cases, this requires volunteer drivers to handle the transfer. The challenge is that neither the restaurant producing the food nor the food pantry receiving it has the necessary staff, nor the spare time, nor the labor dollars to spend on facilitating these crucial transfers.
The Volunteer Hours Solution
While researching potential solutions for this logistical gap, a specific and valuable concept was discovered: volunteer hours.
This system operates where a major company agrees to pay an employee their regular wage to perform community service duties during what would normally be their regular work day — instead of doing their regular work tasks. Importantly, this community service time still officially counts as time worked towards the employer's operational requirements.
For example, a paid employee can dedicate a period of 2 hours to go and deliver food donations during a slow period at their primary day job. Crucially, this time delivering food donations counts towards their total work time that pay period.
Several large companies in the Madison area already participate in and utilize this volunteer hours concept, including Google, ZenDesk, Epic, and DoorDash.
Consequently, this functionality was integrated directly into the web application. There is a certain legitimacy and established process to this feature.
Remarkably Affordable to Operate
The entire website can be run and operated very efficiently. It is fully optimized and can be run for a remarkably cheap cost — less than approximately $20 a month in total.
Consider a scenario where a corporate sponsor — perhaps a company based in Madison — wants to provide sponsorship for this initiative. They would sponsor the site for the reasonable price of $20 a month. In return for this contribution, they will be recognized and become a “hero sponsor.” Their official name and corporate logo will then be prominently displayed on all of the receipts that are generated for tax write-offs.
Receipts for Everyone — Powered by the Hero Sponsor
All of the involved parties receive these receipts. Specifically, when a “Food Loop” is successfully closed, three parties automatically receive a PDF document:
- The pantry receiving the food
- The producer supplying the food
- The volunteer driver completing the delivery
This PDF has a logo on it. The specific logo and name featured on the PDF will be that of the dedicated hero sponsor for that particular month. Boom. Easy.
Additionally, the application also accepts financial support from any private individuals who wish to contribute, which can be done through the readily available support button on the website.
Twenty Years in the Making
MadFoodLoop isn't a startup idea hatched in a conference room. It is the direct product of more than two decades spent watching food move — and watching it get stuck. From loading dock to delivery van, from warehouse floor to co-op deli counter, the same problem appeared again and again.
The technology to solve it was always within reach. What was missing was someone who had stood at both ends of the chain and had both the ground-level understanding and the technical skill to build the bridge.
That bridge is now built.