Challenge: Deliver safe, fresh food to families in need while meeting industry regulations
Action: Donate accurate, easy-to-use LOG-IC® 360 Bluetooth Loggers for temperature monitoring
Results: Maintained compliance and prevented delivery of compromised food
Each day brings a major question for far too many families in the Miami Valley: Where will we find the next meal? The issue is complex, but it’s one that Jason Barton and Jason Johnston knew needed to be addressed in a big way.
Together, they co-founded the non-profit BOGG (Because of God’s Grace) Ministries and began the difficult task of feeding Dayton’s hungry families. Their idea was simple: set up mobile food pantries (lovingly known as Mobile Meals) in the community to give out a free meal and a weeks’ worth of groceries to anyone, no questions asked.
What started as a small service, feeding four families a week, has now exploded into an incredible operation that delivers food to more than 1,500 people throughout the Dayton region each month.
More than simply distributing groceries, BOGG is determined to provide fresh, safe food to every guest. For perishable items, that means staying compliant with the same high standards set for the food service industry regarding temperature monitoring. To meet these regulations, temperatures had to be taken twice hourly with an IR gun during hours of operation and recorded in a paper log.
This process presented a few hurdles for BOGG. With storing and transporting so much food, temperature checks were a tedious, time-consuming task for the team of volunteers.
Another problem was found in the IR guns used to take temperature readings; results were not as accurate as needed. To make matters worse, the fine folks at BOGG soon learned that any two IR guns could produce varied readings and contradicting results.
Knowing BOGG needed to find a better way to stay compliant, and supportive of the great work they were doing in the Dayton community, ASAP and their partner manufacturer, ATI, offered a solution: LOG-IC® 360 Bluetooth Loggers.
With the LOG-IC® 360 Bluetooth Loggers installed in every truck and at their facility, BOGG could accurately monitor temperatures around the clock and easily download logs to a smartphone. Working with our manufacturing partner, American Thermal Instruments, we donated enough LOG-IC® 360 Bluetooth Loggers to meet BOGG’s needs.
In a twist of fate, the loggers were proven valuable in short order. One night, the refrigeration unit on a delivery truck malfunctioned, exposing the food to improper temperatures for nine hours. The next morning, the refrigeration unit began working again and re-cooled the food. The incident would have gone unnoticed if not for the log that was downloaded from the LOG-IC® 360 Bluetooth Loggers the following day, showing the food had endured a temperature breech.
The catch helped BOGG prevent the shipment of compromised food from being delivered to 150 families.
With the LOG-IC® 360 Bluetooth Loggers, BOGG has a simple, effective way to stay compliant and peace of mind. We’re happy to have been able to help BOGG and their mission to provide safe food to families in need.
To learn more about BOGG Ministries or to volunteer, please visit www.thebogg.org/volunteer.