Charity0 → 1 MVP

Prepmate

Cut the friction out of accessing food support with an SMS-led workflow people could use without an account, an app, or a smartphone.

Client: Scottish Pantry Network
Sector: Charity
Engagement: Accelerator
Duration: 3 months

The brief

The Scottish Pantry Network set out to make it easier for people experiencing food insecurity to access meal kit support, while giving frontline workers and pantry teams a clearer way to manage referrals, collections and reporting. The constraint was accessibility. Many users would not have a smartphone, an email address or the confidence for a multi-step app journey, so the service had to work end-to-end through SMS-led communication.

What we did

The brief Prepmate arrived with was a mobile-app wrapper for a Shopify site. Discovery quickly showed that this would not address the Scottish Pantry Network's real operational problem. Together, we reshaped the engagement around the workflows that were actually limiting impact: how referrals reach pantry users, how attendance is logged, and how the network reports back to NHS contracts.

We built Prepmate as a mobile-responsive operational web app covering referrals, collections, communication, and reporting. The biggest design decision was that end users never log in. Instead, the system communicates with them entirely over SMS. That removes the device, account, and digital-confidence barriers that had been stopping people from accessing support.

Family wellbeing workers complete referrals during appointments with no follow-up forms required
Pantry coordinators see daily collection lists on mobile and mark collections complete, even offline
SMS-led onboarding and reminders, no app or account required
Real-time dashboards for SPN administrators, with NHS-contract-aware reporting

How we approached it

The platform sits on React with TypeScript and Firebase. Twilio handles SMS and Resend handles email. Sprint-based delivery let the scope evolve as discovery surfaced things the original brief had not. We invested early in clearly defined user roles (administrators, pantry coordinators, and family wellbeing workers) so each surface only ever asked for the work that role needed to do.

SPN admin dashboard, daily reconciliation

Transforming the experience

Before Prepmate, referrals moved through manual email and phone processes, with SPN administrators often re-entering information into separate systems. Staff had limited visibility of referral progress, users could be unclear about what happened next, and collection attendance was difficult to predict. With Prepmate in place, family wellbeing workers create referrals directly during appointments, users receive a personalised tracking link by SMS, and pantry coordinators manage daily collection lists on mobile devices. At the end of each day, Prepmate reconciles expected versus collected meal kits automatically. SPN administrators now have real-time visibility of NHS contract performance, attendance patterns and programme reach, reducing the manual effort needed for reporting and giving the network a clearer view of impact.

Outcomes

Prepmate gave the Scottish Pantry Network a practical, accessible way to manage meal kit referrals, collections and reporting across community pantry programmes.

Key outcomes included:

Referral delays reduced by allowing family wellbeing workers to create referrals during appointments
SMS-led communication for users without requiring an account, app download or smartphone
Mobile collection lists for pantry coordinators, including offline completion
Automated daily reconciliation of expected versus collected meal kits
Real-time visibility of attendance patterns, NHS contract performance and programme reach
Reduced manual effort for SPN administrators compiling reporting data
A scalable foundation for wider regional rollout and different contract models

In their words

"One thing that really stood out was the attention to detail from the team. Each member of the team took time to really understand the needs of our organisation and suggest ways that ideas could be developed as a result. If someone is considering working with GearedApp, I'd say it's very much worth getting involved with the organisation. Fast and friendly communication, clear and well-structured timelines and attention to detail that gets the most out of the time spent on the project."
Richey JamesScottish Pantry Network