Fiscal transparency, best audit practices and a good (late) spring cleaning meet each year in our Annual Physical Inventory count. Just like a retailer, we are required to account for the inventory of food we have on hand. Those who have been to the pantry know that we weigh all donations as they come in, and we weigh all the food that is given to those in need. Once a year, we also double check everything on the shelves in our warehouse to make sure that our running inventory totals match up with our physical inventory.
The physical inventory involves calculating the weight of our sorted pallets of food and extrapolating for the number of pallets we have of that item.Then we repeat for each type of item in our warehouse. While we’re at it, we pull all the food off the shelves in the packing and market rooms at the pantry, weigh and calculate all of that, and scrub the pantry top to bottom while the shelves are empty.
It’s a two day undertaking, and everyone is glad when it’s done. But everyone is also pleased to have clean and organized pantry ready for our next service to those in need.The inventory is part of our annual audit. An outside auditing firm comes in to make sure we are doing everything well to steward the donations provided by the community.We publish the results each year right here.
