Food Bank Database

[mandie]

Hi, I'm new, I just need some feedback or advice or some general direction in terms of creating or finding a new database for our local foodbank. I am a volunteer and I work directly with the clients and our food bank serves a community of over 120,000 people, so we do have a large influx of people on a daily basis. We currently use a totally inept and outdated MS Access database. We can no longer ask for SSN's due to an unprotected server, so when we need to find someone, say with the name Maria Lopez, we have to go through every Maria Lopez in our system (trust me, there's a lot) and hope that the person who input their info put in their address, because we don't even have birthdays as a input field. And, we have to click next to view each file, and don't have a general ledger to look at. What we do need is a system that requires each field to be input (most everyone working in customer service is a volunteer and not all are computer savvy...kinda like me, but i know how to input data at least) before going on, a way to type in a name and have a whole page of people pop up with like birthdays so we can look through the whole list of people without having to hit next a billion times and then "next" past the right person. This database would track how often the person is coming in (they get 6 boxes in a one year period, while having to wait at least 7 days between each food box) and it also needs to have all of the family members names and ID #s and a head of household area, and a notes page so we can put in warnings or alerts...it also needs a referring agency field, so we know where they received their referral from, and a farm worker field, and field for address, and DOB, and of course, first and last name...and then fields for inputting the dates they received their box and at which location. Thanks...any advice or if this can be built or if you know of a pre-made one for purchase...and I'm doing research on my own, the admin people are fine with this database becvause they don't have to use it and have no clue what's needed, so i figure i will do the research and go to them with options. Thank you in advance. and if this isn't the right forum or place, please direct me, thanks!

[Jordan]

So, you are looking for a desktop application or web based?

[John]

I would probably recommend PostgreSQL.

[mandie]

a desktop application than can be shared via a LAN or whatever it's called (sorry, i'm not ms. technical, be patient with me)

[mandie]

Thanks, I will look into that