Going digital has helped food pantry cut waste and better serve clients

By Adam Candee

Monday, Nov. 14, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Almost three decades have passed since a 13-year-old Armena Mnatsakanyan shivered in a bread line for four hours every winter morning following a devastating earthquake in her native Armenia in 1988.

The suffering feels much closer as Mnatsakanyan talks about finding more efficient ways to feed the poor and suffering as executive director of Lutheran Social Services of Nevada (LSSN), many years after helping her aunt, Hripsime Kirakosyan, establish Mission Armenia to aid quake victims in her home country.

“Since 13 years old, I grew up so quickly,” Mnatsakanyan said. “I felt like 40 or 50 years old. And I wanted to grow up and help someone, at least one person or at least one young girl, not to stand in line like I did.”

Here in Las Vegas, Mnatsakanyan witnessed lines forming as early as 4 p.m. on the day before food would be distributed to the hungry inside LSSN’s food pantry, and envisioned a safer way to help them.

That drive led to LSSN’s implementation of DigiMart, an online food-pantry system attempting to change the way seniors, working poor and the homeless receive assistance. Mnatsakanyan got grant funding to purchase the software for $5,000 from Nexus Financial Services in New York, with intent both to process more than 500,000 pounds of donated food per year in a more efficient manner and to provide a more dignified way for clients to get help.

Instead of receiving a mystery box of food, clients receive a fixed amount of credit each month to shop at one of LSSN’s in-house, touch-screen computer terminals. Each person can spend up to 100 “points” — up to 500 points per family — on 26 food items, with healthy food costing significantly less than junk food. Cookies, for instance, cost 15 points while three servings of meat cost eight points.

“As we educate them on eating healthy, we also try to educate them on how to spend their budgets,” said Derrick Felder, facilities and nutrition manager for LSSN.

After people make their selections, staffers in the warehouse collect and box the items for pickup. Customers then go into the warehouse to choose their meat, dairy and produce.

Felder envisions a fully operational DigiMart allowing LSSN to double the number of clients it serves to 300 per week at peak times. With many seniors still learning the system, Felder said clients need between eight and 10 minutes to make their choices on DigiMart, though repeat users are moving faster.

Margaret Coleman and her husband, Lloyd O’Neill, recently fell behind financially after moving from Southern California. A 65-year-old former social worker, Coleman understands the system from both sides and enjoys shopping through DigiMart.

“You may need some help, and that’s OK,” she said. “Me needing help doesn’t define who I am. We’re going to fall on some hard times because we’re born into a fallen society.”

LSSN operated its pantry as a market for the past 10 years, allowing clients to shop in a miniature supermarket inside its 3,400-square-foot warehouse. They could shop only once a month and receive a certain number of pounds of food based on the size of their family. With DigiMart, clients can get food as many times per month as necessary if they have points remaining.

After the software was purchased, Felder undertook the massive task of putting every potential food item the pantry might distribute into inventory.

“It was quite an undertaking, and it was a culture shock,” he said. “You can’t really ease into this process.”

DigiMart is fully operational now, though, and has helped cut food waste by 31 percent. Especially with pantries that hand out so-called “mystery boxes,” customers often discarded unwanted items in the street, forcing pantry staff to walk the neighborhood to re-collect that food.

“I can never see us going back to the way we used to do it,” Felder said.