iPads now helping food charity feed the hungry

Just last week we wrote about iPads being given out to doctors in Australia, and now we are seeing another hospitality-based use for them -- tracking food donations and pickups for Melbourne's FareShare food charity.

An iPad app developed by volunteers and employees of FareShare acts as a data-entry point for their drivers, who enter the amount and ingredients of donated food they have collected on their routes. This information is then accessed by the chefs who can plan their meals according to what food will be arriving back at the kitchen later that day.

According to FairShare's Food Donations and Logistics Manager Chris Scott, the information "is helping our kitchen plan what to cook, and is increasing the number and diversity of meals we can make. We can also re-distribute packaged food straight to charities' doors faster than ever before." Use of their app has also streamlined the charity's record-keeping and freed up more time to work on charity-specific endeavours rather than paperwork.

FareShare runs their app on three donated iPads and hopes to receive three more to equip even more drivers with the technology. With iPads (and tablet computers in general) being deployed more and more for corporate use, it's nice to see them being used for charity work, too.
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