For our first eight years, every new guest filled out a two-page intake form. It asked for income, household size, and a utility bill. In 2017 we threw it away.

We told ourselves the form helped us plan. What it really did was make people prove they were poor before we'd hand them a bag of rice. Some stood in the parking lot for ten minutes before they came in. Some never came in at all.

We weren't losing food to people who didn't need it. We were losing people who did.

What we ask now

One question: how many people are you shopping for? That's it. The number helps us plan orders, and it's the only thing we write down.

What happened

• Visits went up 40% in the first year.
• Check-in dropped from nine minutes to under two.
• First-time guests who came back within a month rose from 31% to 68%.
• Our volunteer list grew, because many new guests started signing up for shifts.

Our shelves didn't empty. The fear that people would take advantage turned out to be exactly that: a fear. If you run a pantry and want to try it, our volunteer handbook walks through how we made the switch.