home delivery
operational effort
operations time
Forgotten Harvest is a large-scale community services organization supporting food security across Greater Metro Detroit. Operating at the intersection of nonprofit delivery and public service, the organization works closely with government entities, public agencies, and community partners to ensure vulnerable populations have reliable access to nutritious food.
Through a complex, high-volume logistics and distribution model, Forgotten Harvest coordinates hundreds of food donors and agency partners, delivering essential services to thousands of residents each week. Its operations support seniors, homebound individuals, and communities facing food insecurity, making reliable service delivery, accountability, and scalability critical to its mission.
Key Deliverables
Unified Intake and Order Management
Centralized capture and management of home delivery requests through structured, auditable case records.
Scalable Delivery Scheduling and Capacity Control
Real-time scheduling and capacity management to support high-volume, time-critical food delivery and scale operations from hundreds to thousands of households.
Integrated Delivery Partner Coordination
Automated data exchange with external delivery partners and driver networks, eliminating manual file handling and improving execution visibility.
Grant-Ready Governance and Reporting
Built-in controls and reporting to support publicly funded operations, compliance, and auditable service delivery.
Foundation for Connected Social Services
A flexible, AI-powered no-code platform designed to extend beyond food delivery to support coordinated, multi-service case management.
Partner Relationship Management at Scale
One platform ready to manage relationships with nearly 400 food sourcing partners and 200+ agency partners, bringing structure and transparency to a complex service ecosystem.
Scaling Home Food Delivery to Meet Public Needs
Forgotten Harvest delivers more than 144,000 pounds of surplus food per day to local charities across Metro Detroit. This is not shelf-stable surplus or excess inventory held in storage. It is high-quality, fresh food that must move through the system within days.
That urgency places delivery at the center of Forgotten Harvest’s operating model. The organization coordinates logistics with 400 sourcing partners across retail, government, manufacturing, and distribution, and moves it through a network of more than 200 agency partners across the region. Every step requires precise timing, accurate data, and reliable coordination.
Home delivery introduces an additional layer of complexity. Through this service, Forgotten Harvest supports residents who are unable to access traditional food distribution channels. For seniors and homebound individuals, home delivery is not a convenience—it is the only viable way to receive food assistance.
Managing this level of speed and volume requires more than logistics and coordination alone. The organization needed a system capable of intaking clients, creating and managing delivery schedules, tracking capacity in real time, and integrating automatically with external delivery partners while ensuring address accuracy and clean, reliable data handoff throughout the process.
This wasn’t just about a home delivery CRM. We had to think long term and broader. We needed confidence that the platform we chose could also manage relationships with food sourcing partners and agency partners. There’s a lot of complexity in those relationships, and the stakes are high.
Selecting a Platform for Speed and Scale
Creatio was chosen for its rapid time-to-value and no-code architecture that enabled Forgotten Harvest to move quickly, configuring workflows, integrations, and processes as requirements evolved, while maintaining governance and control.
Implementation was delivered by Qnovate and completed in just three months, enabling Forgotten Harvest to transition rapidly from manual coordination to a production-ready system. The project quickly became the most successful implementation delivered at Forgotten Harvest, driven by strong user engagement and the ability to turn requirements into working functionality almost immediately.
This was the first project where I could literally step back as CIO. The solution was coming together quickly, users were engaged, and requirements were being turned into working functionality almost immediately. That level of trust and momentum allowed me to focus on other strategic priorities, which is rare in projects like this.
Simplifying Home Food Delivery with Intelligent Case Management
Using Creatio, Forgotten Harvest brought its entire home delivery operation into a single, coordinated system designed to scale with demand. What was once a set of disconnected, manual steps is now an automated flow from client intake to final delivery. Orders are generated automatically based on delivery frequency and location, with real-time visibility into warehouse and route capacity, allowing the system to move clients from waitlists to active delivery as soon as space becomes available. All client inquiries, whether coming in by phone or web, are captured in one place, giving teams a complete view of eligibility, history, and ongoing needs.
To support delivery for partners, Creatio translates this data into ready-to-use delivery files with a single click, handling complex formatting requirements behind the scenes. Address accuracy is validated automatically using Google Maps, reducing failed deliveries, while integrations with systems like Link2Feed ensure consistent client identity tracking. Together, these capabilities turned home delivery into a reliable, end-to-end operation rather than a daily coordination challenge.
Before, we were operating within the limits of what manual processes could support, so around 300 home delivery households. With Creatio, we now have the structure and visibility to scale that model to up to 3,000 households. We can see demand clearly, manage capacity in real time, and expand responsibly as resources and funding allow.
A System Ready for the Future of Social Services
From the outset, Forgotten Harvest’s objective extended beyond optimizing home delivery. As part of a grant-funded Community Information Exchange (CIE) initiative supported by United Way, the organization set out to establish a platform capable of supporting a broader, connected social services model.
The goal was to move toward a system that could manage not only food distribution, but also complex relationships, case information, and referrals across a growing network of service providers. That required flexible process management, strong data governance, and the ability to evolve as programs, funding models, and partnerships expanded.
With Creatio in place, Forgotten Harvest has established a shared operational foundation supporting holistic intake, coordinated case management, and responsible data sharing across food assistance, health, housing, and other community services.
Over time, this foundation enables the organization to:
Intelligence as an Enabler of Connected Services
While platform breadth was essential, Forgotten Harvest also prioritized intelligence, ensuring that information could be understood and acted on quickly in situations where needs are urgent and outcomes matter.
Rather than introducing standalone automation, the focus was on creating a system where clean data, connected relationships, and case context enable faster, more informed decisions across services. Early demonstrations of Creatio’s AI direction reinforced confidence that the platform could support this model as it matures — without compromising governance or human oversight.
Intelligence in the system is really important. We’re one part of a broader network, and the question is how quickly we can understand a situation and get a case what it needs — sometimes that same day. That’s where having the right platform matters. It’s about clean data, connected processes, and the ability to scale decision-making responsibly.
With a no-code, AI-ready foundation in place, Forgotten Harvest is positioned to introduce additional intelligence where it adds real operational value — supporting a connected services model built for accountability, speed, and long-term sustainability.
About Qnovate
Qnovate is a technology solutions provider specializing in the design and delivery of scalable digital platforms. The company supports organizations through complex digital transformations, with expertise spanning cloud platforms, data and analytics, and leading enterprise technologies, including Creatio. Qnovate focuses on building governed, flexible solutions that align operational needs with long-term business and service objectives. Through a delivery approach centered on collaboration, configurability, and execution speed, Qnovate helps organizations modernize processes, integrate systems, and scale services efficiently.
