Serving hundreds of food-insecure families every week, Oakland HOPE is the largest free food pantry/bank in Oakland County, Michigan.
Overwhelmed with demand since the pandemic in 2020, Oakland HOPE needed to rearrange how they processed requests in order to limit human contact. During the height of the pandemic, Oakland HOPE kept its doors open and distributed over 1.4 million pounds of food to more than 34,000 people.
Oakland HOPE needed help enhancing their FileMaker solution so they could better handle the increase in demand and logistics. Eager to help with this important work in a location with special meaning to LuminFire’s CEO Tim Cimbura, LuminFire awarded Oakland HOPE a non-profit technology grant.
“My recently deceased mother grew up in the Detroit area near where the Oakland Hope Food Shelf operates, so this was a special project for us. We consider it an honor to be able to support a worthy cause and give back to the community she loved.” – Tim Cimbura
After an initial discovery process, LuminFire focused work on the quick wins that would be of the greatest benefit to the organization. The top priority identified was the need for improvements to the user interface and user experience (UI/UX).
The existing screens had been created over time without a master plan or consistent design. LuminFire worked to overhaul the user interface with a new theme and thoughtful UX so that interacting with the app would be an amazing experience for the people using the solution, thereby maximizing their productiveness.
Phil Skiff, Technology Director at Oakland Hope outlined his project experience:
“Our food pantry was up against a wall with new governmental data requirements and no way to quickly make changes to our pantry management system. LuminFire stepped up and managed to get far more done than we had even hoped for, and they did it fast with bare minimum specs. The results are superb. We have a clean, fresh UI, new functionality, and the new data we need to satisfy our suppliers.
The updates to our in-house pantry management system made by LuminFire allow us to process client visits quickly and efficiently. We can also now capture the vital metrics we need to comply with governmental requirements and generate grant requests—the lifeblood of our operation.
The support we got from LuminFire was outstanding. They were professional, technically adept, and easy to work with. Their expertise in the FileMaker platform allowed them to accomplish much more within our limited budget than we expected. Often when working with third-party development teams, communication can be a real problem. With LuminFire we had consistent, timely, and effective communication. Their team was always easy to reach and exceptionally responsive. The lead developer assigned to the project was a joy to work with. I’d recommend LuminFire to anyone seeking FileMaker development support.”
If you’re looking for a partner to help take your FileMaker solution to the next level of design, functionality, productivity and security, LuminFire can help.
Tim Cimbura – CEO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with the Claris platform including FileMaker and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.