Considering Food Pantry Helper?
Thinking about using Food Pantry Helper at your pantry? Here are the questions we hear most often before pantries sign up.
Already a subscriber? Our FAQ covers day-to-day questions.
1 What does it cost?
Food Pantry Helper is a yearly subscription starting at $79/year for the Starter plan and going up to $499/year for Premium (or $699/year for Premium with the AI Enhancement Pack). There are no per-user monthly fees and no setup fee on the any of our plans — you pay once for the year, by credit card or by check.
2 Are there any additional expenses?
The subscription is the only required expense from us.
| Possible expense | Do you need it? |
|---|---|
| Computer + internet | Required. Food Pantry Helper runs in your web browser — nothing to install. A PC with a current version of Windows and the Chrome browser works best. |
| Barcode reader | Optional, roughly $100. Only needed if you want to scan clients in at pickup or scan UPC codes on inventory. Any “keyboard emulation” reader that handles PDF417 and UPC codes will work. We don't sell or require a specific brand — we strongly recommend testing your reader during your free trial. |
| Barcode / label printer | Optional. Client pickup barcodes and ID badge images print fine on an ordinary office printer or on plain label sheets. A dedicated label printer is a convenience, not a requirement. |
| Excel / Word | Not required. Reports and data exports come out as CSV, Excel and Word formats — but you can open them with free software such as LibreOffice, OpenOffice, or Google Sheets/Docs at no cost. |
| Add-ons | Optional. Extra user accounts, extra emails, outbound SMS texting, and custom reports or programming are available for additional fees — see the bottom of the Price page. |
3 How many user accounts do we get?
Every plan comes with one primary (administrator) account, and that primary account counts as one of your total accounts — it is not an extra account on top of the number you see advertised. The rest of your total are secondary accounts:
| Plan | Total user accounts | Primary (admin) | Secondary accounts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Standard | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Plus | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| Premium | 20 | 1 | 19 |
Example: the Plus plan's 5 accounts means 1 primary account for your administrator plus 4 secondary accounts for staff and volunteers — not 1 + 5.
The primary account has access to everything. Secondary accounts can be limited by feature — for example, a volunteer account that can only use the Clients section. Accounts can all be signed in at the same time.
4 What features are included?
Food Pantry Helper is a complete cloud-based pantry management system: client and household member records, pickup tracking (including barcode scan-in), inventory with UPC scanning and expiration tracking, donations and donor management, grant tracking, staff/volunteer scheduling and hour logging, backpack program tools, client emailing, and a full set of built-in reports and data exports (TEFAP eligibility, HPNAP summary, executive summary, clients served, and more). Higher plans add pickup scheduling, multiple locations, kiosk mode, an advanced report writer, and optional AI tools.
5 Where can we learn more?
Three easy ways, all free:
- Start a free 7-day trial. No credit card, no obligation, about a minute to sign up. Use the trial to test your workflow and your barcode hardware. (We recommend not entering real client data during the trial.) — Start your free trial →
- Visit the Learn page. Short 3-minute how-to videos plus written walkthroughs for every major feature. — Learn →
- Ask us. Email info@foodpantryhelper.com with your questions — we answer quickly and we're happy to walk you through the system.
6 Which subscription is right for our pantry?
The simplest way to start is by how many clients you expect to have in the system and how much reporting your pantry needs. Find your row below:
| Your total client count | Reporting needs | Recommended plan | Price | Also includes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,000 clients |
Basic Client & household lists you can export to a spreadsheet |
Starter | $79/yr | 1 user · client & household member tracking · pickup tracking · basic data exports |
| Up to 5,000 clients |
Light Built-in standard reports — TEFAP, HPNAP, executive summary, clients served |
Standard | $149/yr | 2 users · client tracking & pickups · inventory (5K items) · 100 donors · 25 volunteers · backpack program |
| Up to 10,000 clients |
Moderate Everything above plus the advanced report writer, pickups by zip code and by gender/ethnicity |
Plus | $249/yr | 5 users · pickup scheduling & barcode scan-in · 7 locations · 500 donors · 100 volunteers · advanced report writer |
| Up to 50,000 clients |
Extensive Everything above plus item-level pickup reporting, inventory history, expiration & low-quantity reports, donations export |
Premium | $499/yr | 20 users · kiosk mode · item-level pickup tracking · 15 locations · 2,500 donors · 250 volunteers · ID badges |
| Up to 50,000 clients + AI tools |
Extensive + AI Everything above plus AI-written grant proposals, donor analysis and acknowledgment letters |
Premium with AI | $699/yr | Everything in Premium plus AI grant writing, donor analysis, acknowledgment letters, and more |
Two more things to keep in mind when picking a level:
- Clients count toward your total permanently. Once a client is added they count against your limit whether or not you later delete them — so allow room for growth.
- Client count isn't the only factor. Also check your number of staff/volunteers, donors, user accounts, and locations — those limits differ by plan too. If any one of them exceeds a level, step up to the next plan.
Still have questions?
Email info@foodpantryhelper.com — we're glad to help you decide.