Improving access to mealkits

Their work is grounded in the belief that access to affordable, nutritious food should be dignified, simple, and connected to wider support services. However, as programmes expanded through NHS-funded delivery and new regions came on board, manual referral processes, fragmented communication, and limited visibility into attendance and outcomes began to undermine that goal. Addressing this meant creating a system that was accessible for people with varying levels of digital confidence, reliable for staff operating under pressure, and robust enough to support reporting, governance, and future scale.

At the centre of the problem was an inefficient, fragmented referral and collection process.

Family wellbeing workers identified people who would benefit from meal kits, but referrals were sent via email or phone to SPN administrators, who then manually entered data into systems. This created delays between referral and first collection, and in some cases, individuals were unaware they had even been referred. Attendance rates suffered as a result, and staff spent significant time chasing non-responsive users.

There was no central view of attendance patterns, missed collections, or programme effectiveness. Quarterly NHS reporting required manual data collation from multiple sources, adding further strain to a small team. Meanwhile, the expected scale of referrals was never reached, with actual usage far below projections due largely to process friction rather than lack of need.

Any solution had to work within strict funding constraints, support people with limited digital access or literacy, and be flexible enough to handle different contract structures beyond NHS delivery.

Working closely with SPN, we designed and built the Prepmate platform, a mobile-responsive operational web app that supports referrals, collections, communication, and reporting across SPN’s meal kit programmes.

The project began with a very different brief, a mobile app wrapper for an upcoming Shopify site. Early discovery showed this would not address SPN’s real operational challenges. Together, we reshaped the scope around the systems and workflows that were actually limiting impact.

Prepmate was designed around clearly defined user roles, including administrators, pantry coordinators, and family wellbeing workers, each with interfaces aligned to how they work day to day. A key decision was to remove the need for end users to log into a portal. Instead, the system uses SMS-based communication, ensuring accessibility for people with limited devices, intermittent connectivity, or low digital confidence.

Family wellbeing workers complete referrals in full during appointments, triggering immediate onboarding messages to users without requiring them to fill out forms themselves. The platform was built using React with TypeScript, Firebase for backend services, and integrated tools such as Twilio for SMS and Resend for email delivery. Delivery followed a sprint-based approach, allowing requirements to evolve without losing momentum.

Before Prepmate, referrals moved slowly through manual processes, with little feedback or visibility for staff or users. Collection attendance was difficult to predict, and reporting required time-consuming reconciliation.

With Prepmate in place, family wellbeing workers can create referrals directly during appointments, selecting the correct contract and entering all required details in one place. Users immediately receive a welcome SMS with a personalised tracking link, giving them clarity about their referral and upcoming collections.

Pantry coordinators can view daily collection lists on mobile devices and mark collections as completed, even when offline. At the end of each day, Prepmate automatically reconciles expected versus collected kits, removing the need for manual follow-up and data handling.

For SPN administrators, dashboards and reports provide real-time insight into attendance patterns, contract performance, and programme reach, with flexible date filtering that works across NHS and non-NHS contracts.

Prepmate is now entering a controlled rollout phase, starting with the most active family wellbeing workers and a limited number of regions. Training sessions will support adoption ahead of a wider launch, aligned with NHS contract renewals and potential regional expansion.

Future enhancements will focus on refining workflows based on real-world usage, improving flexibility for different contract types, and extending Prepmate to support additional delivery models and accessibility needs. With a scalable foundation in place, Prepmate positions SPN to grow its impact while maintaining clarity, efficiency, and accountability across its programmes.