Services
Consulting & Transformation

Industry
Nonprofit

Market
Sweden

Challenge

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the cost-of-living crisis, Sweden is seeing a drastic increase of people who find it hard to afford food. And so, the employees who work with food banking at the Swedish Association of City Missions – an NGO since 1853 – have never been busier. The increasing demand for efficiency made it clear that what was needed was an easy-to-use registration tool that could: 

1. Keep track of food going in and out of warehouses
2. Provide real-time data and accurate day-to-day reports
3. Prove compliancy with food safety and traceability regulations
4. Minimise the risk of human error in a busy environment where short expiry dates increase the pace

Overall, the challenge was to collaborate with City Missions to empower employees to manage inventory better and handle donations from food companies or industries more professionally. One of our Merkle values is to be a force for good, so getting the opportunity to work for a client as this only made the effort all the more meaningful. 

Approach

Walking the talk, we collaborated to develop and deliver a digital solution ensuring that every handled food item can easily, rapidly, and effortlessly be meticulously accounted for. Streamlining operations, the City Mission employees can now use a scanning device to register incoming and outgoing goods and check stock levels at any given time with a customized inventory balance tool. 

Furthermore, a product catalogue with all information about the food makes it easy to find data on the individual products. Digital delivery notes streamline communication with beneficiaries and social operations – and central management can document all efforts with reports and statistics on handled donations, complete with all the accompanying data.

Results

In year 2022 alone, the City Mission Food Banks rescued a staggering 3,500 tons of food directly from the Swedish food industry. This corresponds to 8,125 tons of CO2 saved. The amount of food that was handled in 2022 increased by 67 % so it's great news that an organisation dedicated to battling food poverty is now able to help more people with the digital tool. 

The journey doesn't stop here, though. The number of memberships of the City Mission social supermarkets Matmissionen went up almost 100 % in 2022, so continuous development of the solution is an absolute must. We’re driven by the ambition to use our capabilities and technological skills to reduce waste and put food on more tables.