Amazon Helping Sacramento Food Bank Streamline Operations

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A Sacramento nonprofit is getting a little help from a neighboring business in Tracy.

Staff from Amazon's fulfillment center are lending their expertise to the Sacramento Food Bank to help streamline its operations so it can help more local families in need.

It takes a well-oiled machine to move and pack up food for distribution at the Sacramento Food Bank warehouse. But with 242,000 Sacramento families facing food insecurity, director Erik Kintzel wants to take efficiency to a new level.

"Learning from them is just truly an incredible opportunity for a non-profit like us here in Sac County," he said.

The Amazon operations team in Tracy offered their expertise.

"We would want everything in a warehouse to have a location, but have that location clearly defined with visual indicators where it is so people can find it and they know where they're going," said site leader Brian Fontenot.

Bigger and brighter signage, he says, would help direct volunteers and recipients around the facility with greater ease.

"It's really fantastic to come out and share with the community things that are going to make an impact on the community, right here in the community where we live and work," he said.

The quick education is already making an impact. Kintzel says he's already switching up staffing assignments to improve workflow.

"Instead of having four different sorting lines, actually shrinking it down to essentially, two, so almost a funneling of the product," he said.