Holiday Hunger

The Holiday Hunger programme relied on Family Liaison Officers from local schools to identify and refer families requiring food provisions during the summer holidays.

Referrals were submitted using a Google Form, providing a straightforward method for schools to recommend families for support.

However, once a referral had been received, almost every subsequent operational activity depended on manual administration.

The programme administrator was responsible for interpreting referral information, calculating the food provisions required, planning stock requirements and organising deliveries.

With more than 100 deliveries and ten pairs of volunteer drivers, coordinating the distribution of food parcels became particularly demanding.

Delivery routes were planned manually using Google Maps. Addresses had to be organised into suitable delivery groups, routes prepared for individual drivers and arrangements communicated separately.

At the same time, the administrator had to calculate demand for food supplies based on standard bag profiles, ensuring sufficient stock was available for the families being supported.

This created several significant challenges:

• Disconnected referral and delivery processes: Information submitted through Google Forms had to be manually transferred into operational planning.
• Time-consuming route planning: Delivery routes were prepared individually using Google Maps rather than generated automatically.
• Manual demand calculations: Food requirements had to be calculated from standard bag profiles and referral volumes.
• Complex stock coordination: Administrators needed to monitor food availability against changing demand.
• Volunteer driver coordination: Ten pairs of drivers needed clear routes, delivery information and practical directions.
• Repetitive family communications: Families needed regular information and reminders about forthcoming deliveries.
• Limited feedback collection: Gathering consistent feedback from families required additional administration.
• Restricted capacity for growth: Increasing the number of families supported would also increase the administrative workload.

The programme was delivering an essential service, but too much of the available time was being consumed by organising the work rather than delivering support. The central challenge was to make the programme scalable without requiring additional administrative personnel.

Procium developed a bespoke web application bringing the principal activities of the Holiday Hunger programme into one system.

The result is a connected operational platform that supports the entire journey from school referral to family delivery and feedback.

Holiday Hunger demonstrates an important principle for charities and community organisations: growth does not always require more administrative staff.

Many charities already have committed volunteers, established referral networks and effective ways of reaching people who need support.

What they often lack is the technology to connect those activities efficiently.

In Holiday Hunger, a simple online form had helped collect referrals, but the real administrative burden lay in everything that happened afterwards.

By connecting referrals, demand forecasting, stock management, route planning, driver navigation, communications and feedback, Procium helped transform the complete service delivery process.

The project demonstrates that affordable bespoke software can deliver value beyond replacing spreadsheets.

It can improve coordination, reduce repetitive work and create the operational capacity for charities to extend their reach.

The greatest benefit of automation is not simply doing the same work faster. It is enabling a charity to do more good with the resources it already has.