The most important question in selecting a plan is: Does your organization want its own app that volunteers will download from the app store?

Yes, we want our own app: The Premium plan involves building a new app with your organization’s branding.

No, we don’t want our own app: You can use the Food Rescue Hero platform without your organization having its own app in the app store. Volunteers will download the Food Rescue Hero app and select your region from a dropdown menu when they sign up. Your organization should go with either the Basic or Plus versions, depending on the size of your service area.

Need help deciding which plan is right for you? Reach out to Jen England.

Once you’ve selected the best plan for your organization, we’ll send you the license agreement. Depending on the plan you’ve selected, a down payment or upfront fee may be due upon signing.

Once the license is finalized and any necessary payment has been remitted, we’ll schedule a kickoff call with your team. We’ll walk you through the timeline and answer any questions you might have about the process.

You’ll also receive the App Info Form, which is how we collect the critical data needed for us to begin building your app.

The App Info Form goes over all the data that we need in order to start building your app. Take a look at the form so that you can start preparing the information.

When it’s time, we’ll send you an editable version so that you can collaborate with the rest of your staff.

In addition to those details, we also need a couple different versions of vector images of your future app’s logo. This gives our engineers the most usable version of your logo for the different places that it appears in the app and in our marketing.

What is a vector image?

Unlike raster images, which are made of pixels, vector images are made up of points, lines and shapes that are based on mathematical equations. This allows an image to be scaled up to any size without a loss in quality.

How do I know if a logo is vector?

A vector file can only be saved in the formats .ai (Adobe Illustrator), .eps (Encapsulated PostScript), .pdf (Portable Document Format), or .svg (Scalable Vector Graphic). However, just because an image is saved in this format doesn’t mean the image has been vectorized. If you significantly enlarge the image and it becomes fuzzy, you can be sure that the image is not vector.

The best way to be sure that an image is vector is to confirm with your organization’s graphic designer.

Only for Premium plans.

Google and Apple require that you have app developer accounts in order to host your app in the App Store and Google Play Store. Your organization will have ownership of these accounts.

How to set up an app developer account (Apple): https://developer.apple.com/support/app-account/#organization

How to set up an app developer account (Google Play): https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6112435?hl=en

In order to set up these developer accounts, you’ll need a Dun & Bradstreet Number. If you already have this set up, be sure to have the number at hand.

How to set up a Dun & Bradstreet Number: https://www.dnb.com/duns/get-a-duns.html

Once the App Info Form and the License Agreement are complete, we can set a timeline for your app build! Building an app takes 4-6 weeks. In the meantime…

Marketing and communications are keys to a successful launch. Start planning how you will transition existing volunteers to the app, how you will get new volunteers and how this will impact your operations plan.