With more than 20 million meals distributed to our neighbors in need, millions of pounds of food moves our nearly 92,000-square-foot campus every year.
That is a lot of inventory!
The dedicated members of our Operations team meticulously manage our inventory all year long and at the end of June, right before our fiscal year closes, we come together for the BIG COUNT. From the Community Kitchen to the freezer and cooler in our Distribution Center and every inch of our this space and our other warehouses, our team must count and report out on every single food and inventoried item at FeedMore.
Why do we do it?
Our year-end inventory is a checkpoint to ensure that our processes are streamlined and we’re managing our vast inventory of donated and purchased products in the most efficient and effective manner.
It also allows us to take a step back to evaluate what’s been working over the last year and what needs to be improved. Continuous improvement is a big part of what we do here at FeedMore and we’re dedicated to getting the communities we serve the food they need in the most efficient way possible.
How do we do it?
Our staff divides up into teams of three that cover each area of the campus. There are counters, drivers (someone has to move all those pallets of food!) and the data team that verifies all the counts and enters that data into our inventory management system.
Once everything has been verified by our Operations staff, the auditors go to work to ensure that all the numbers match up.
And we are happy to report that the auditors reviewed our counts and they were all 100 percent accurate! As they say, teamwork makes the dream work and that couldn’t be truer when it comes to our year-end inventory process.
