Agency Portal

Agency Ordering

Welcome to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank Member Agency Portal. Here you’ll find the documents, forms and toolkits on membership and food safety to help you manage your Food Bank member program. If you need assistance, please contact Jennifer Hazard, Agency Programs Administrative Coordinator.

Agency Orientations

  • Agency orientations are required for new staff and volunteers who order online or pick up at the Food Bank. Our orientations are in person at the Food Bank. View our October-December 2024 schedule here, and our January-March 2025 schedule here.
  • Do you have new staff members or volunteers helping with your food program? Sign them up for one of our trainings to learn everything they need to know about Food Bank membership, how to order online, and more. This training is required for anyone ordering and/or picking up product from the Food Bank. After attending, participants are then considered ‘qualified shoppers’ on behalf of your program.
  • RSVP by email jhazard@rifoodbank.org.

Video: Intro to the Food Bank

If you are looking to onboard new staff and volunteers or need a refresher for current staff and volunteers, check out our new video “Introduction to the RI Community Food Bank”. This video is a condensed version of our in-person agency orientation to help member agencies provide a basic training to support staff and volunteers who are not part of managing the everyday food program operations. This on-demand training is meant for those who intend to help, yet do not need to be added to your account as an authorized shopper with the ability to place orders or act as a main point person for between the Food Bank and your agency.

2024 Regional Directory and Regional 1-Page Guides

Tool Kits

The Food Bank puts together tool kits for our member agencies on a monthly basis which include resources on a variety of topics. For Community Resource and/or Outreach questions, please contact Lihna Agostini, Community Outreach Manager. For more community resources available to the public, click here.

Workshops & Trainings

Click the links below to browse the workshops and trainings available to member agencies.

General Resources

Below, please find materials from previous workshops and other resources that may be helpful to you.

Monthly statistics are an important program requirement for all food pantries, community meal sites and shelters. For Statistics questions, please contact Hope Indeglia O’Brien, Director Community Impact.

Statistics Instructions 

Statistics Tutorial Video

Guest Registration Form

Guest Visit Tracking

TEFAP Information

The documents below are a TEFAP requirement for members accepting and distributing TEFAP food. Most of these resources are available in multiple languages. For TEFAP questions, please contact Jennifer Hazard, Agency Programs Administrative Coordinator.

View our TEFAP tutorial video here for FAQ’s about the program.

FOOD SAFETY RESOURCES

Along with our Basic Agreement, all members are expected to follow our Food Safety Standard for Member Agencies. For questions, contact the Director of Community Impact, Hope Indeglia O’Brien.

For an overview of general food safety expectations, review our presentations here:

Food Bank member agencies are required to have several Food Safety Licenses per the RI Department of Health’s Food Code and the Food Bank’s Basic Agreement and Food Safety Standard.  These licenses can be confusing, so please do not hesitate to contact Hope Indeglia O’Brien, Director of Community Impact with any questions you may have, or find answers to frequently asked food safety questions.

Per our Food Safety Standard, all donations, whether they are dry goods, fresh produce, or cold/frozen products, must be tracked on a Donation Log. Your agency may choose to use your own logging system, or you can use the Food Bank’s Donation Log template.

When tracking donations, be sure to log the following:

  1. A general description of the food donation
  2. The amount donated
  3. The source of the donation
  4. If the donation is a cold or frozen product, the temperature at receiving. Cold products must be at or below 41° F and frozen products must be at or below 0° F.
    • Since cold foods can harbor pathogenic microorganisms and permit their growth or the production of toxins, special care must be taken to keep them out of the temperature danger zone for as long as possible, the temperature danger zone being between 41° F to 135° F.
  5. It is also important to keep receipts of food donations for food safety reasons. Receipts should indicate the date and time of the donation and include back up for temperatures of any cold food products upon arrival.

National & Regional Product Recalls

The Food Recalls Widget compiles all food recall information from FDA and USDA in the same place. View the widget for the latest national & regional food safety recalls and alerts. If your agency may have received a recalled product from a local distributor, or the Food Bank, food safety trained staff, volunteers and recall contacts will get an email with a recall notification. Learn more about the food safety recall process.