Saskatoon company's app helps food banks track inventory and reduce waste

A Saskatoon tech company's app, developed to help the local food bank streamline inventory and reduce waste, is starting to get traction elsewhere in the country.

FoodCopia was developed by Levis Tech, a Saskatoon-based software company.

The app is an inventory management tool that helps food bank organizations store, sort and distribute items while reducing waste.

"Food banks get a lot of random assorted goods. They don't necessarily know what they're going to be receiving, when, and in what quantities," said Jared Fedorchuk, CEO of Levis Tech.

The app was originally developed to help the Saskatoon Food Bank find a smarter way to manage its growing inventory.

"They weren't satisfied with their current inventory solution, which was something that they developed in house and was getting kind of long in the tooth," Fedorchuk said.

The food bank teamed up with Levis Tech, ultimately leading to the creation of FoodCopia.

Saskatoon tech company helps food banks with cutting-edge inventory system

3 days ago

Duration 2:24

The Saskatoon Food Bank needed a smarter way to manage its growing inventory, so they teamed up with local tech company Levis Tech. The result is a groundbreaking program called FoodCopia, which is starting to get traction elsewhere in the country. Its CEO joined Saskatoon Morning this morning.

Now food banks from elsewhere have started taking notice.

"We thought it would be a one-off solution just to help them, but it seems there was a wider problem for food banks and one of the problems was the way that they would sort the food as it comes in," Fedorchuk said.

Dan Edwards, from the Wood Buffalo food bank that services Fort McMurray, Alta., said he's been using FoodCopia for a few years. He said the app is more efficient than previous platforms he's tried, such as Excel.

"I'd end up with wrong numbers and I'd have to go chasing documents trying to find the correct numbers," Edwards said.

He also noted how accessible FoodCopia is, mentioning he can check on operations from home.

"The ease of just entering it into a tablet that I can then just go in and get the report and information I need, and my team can continue to do their work without me having to bother them."

Edwards and Fedorchuk both said they hope technology like this can allow food banks to focus on the core mission of feeding communities and less on administrative challenges.

"When you look at something like the food bank, you know it's really taking care of a bare human necessity. It's putting food in people's stomach. So it's really satisfying for me and the team to be able to participate in something like this," Fedorchuk said.