Foodbank Logistics Improved by Packaging Company's Clever Design

Handling food donations at Swindon’s Foodbank will become a slicker process thanks to the ingenuity and generosity of Swindonian specialist packing company GWP, who've donated 200 of their cleverly designed food collection boxes.

The durable boxes, made from lightweight Correx plastic, have been designed specifically for Swindon Foodbank in order to improve the logistics of food collections at the charity.

Food donated by organisations are often presented for collection in a myriad of re-used cardboard boxes and carrier bags. Whilst large donations of food are always welcome, the logistics of handling such volumes has been an arduous process for Foodbank. Boxes are often flimsy and overfilled; bags can split, spoiling its contents, and stowing the food in a van for safe transportation means having to decant it into regular shaped rigid boxes. When the food reaches the sorting warehouse it needs to be easy to handle so that it can be weighed into stock and donations recorded, before it can be sorted.

Andrew Hill, Project Manager at Foodbank explains: “We weigh food in and out of our warehouse for several reasons: Firstly to give an idea at any point in time of our stocking levels, secondly as a charity we are required to take a monetary value to our accounts in regard to donations received in kind and thirdly so that we can recognise the scale of the giving by issuing a thank you to the donator that clearly tells them how much food was given.

“We often pick up donations from multiple sources in a single van run, so being able to quickly segregate each donation by donor and load the van quickly is essential. At Autumn Harvest Thanksgiving, we receive multiple donations in bulk, last year we had 900kg from a school and even with the enthusiastic help of the children it took an hour to pack the food at the point of collection.

GWP’s solution to the problem was to design a unique and inventive flat-packed box with a clear sleeve on the outside for a pre-printed label. The boxes are collapsible with handle holes and are a consistent size and shape to fit the Foodbank’s van. When not in use the boxes can be flat-packed, meaning that the less of the valuable warehouse space is taken up. The boxes are waterproof, stack securely and safely, are easy to label and re-label and quicker and safer to move.

The boxes are supplied to donor organisations ahead of time so that when Foodbank volunteers arrive to collect the donated food they're given regular-sized, strong boxes already neatly filled and clearly labelled. This streamlines the amount of time the volunteers use and improves recording accuracy. 

Ruth Cook, Managing Director of GWP said, “We worked with Foodbank last year to help improve the handling and transport of food for distribution to their clients and we know that our input and donation of custom-made boxes has made a great deal of difference to the charity.  We are delighted that, once again, our expertise in packaging design and logistics has been able to help Foodbank, this time at food donation points. We know that demand for Foodbank’s services is on the increase and we’re really pleased that we could help”.

Earlier on in the year GWP announced that they've adopted Swindon Foodbank as their chosen charity. Since then GWP have helped Foodbank with their logistical activity including inventory management and stock control, IT and electrical expertise and storage.

For more information about GWP see: www.gwp.co.uk