Standard Christmas Program – Link2Feed

The Christmas Program typically runs from October through December, and has two program types, the Standard Christmas Program, and the Advanced Christmas Program (Click here for more details). This article will discuss the Standard Christmas Program option.

Utilizing the Standard Christmas Program allows you to separate reporting from standard appointment programs. Generally, this is the most commonly utilized option, the Advanced Christmas Program is generally used in situations where you would like reporting to be completely separated from the reports feature and you would like to capture additional details that a standard food bank visit would not be able to note such as specific fulfillment sites separate from agencies visited for example (Click here for more details on the Advanced Christmas Program).

This type of visit is used to schedule a visit or delivery that will occur in the future, setting the status as Pending. It will allow you to create an appointment, however, it will not be saved as an actual visit unless the status of the appointment has been changed to Collected confirm the provisions were picked up.

This article covers the following topics:

Standard Christmas Program Set-up & Overview

To request this program to be added to your account please reach out to your account manager or create a support ticket.

The reason for utilizing the Standard Christmas Program would be to allow for the scheduling of appointments for the holiday season.

When the program is added at the Network level to your organization you will have to complete the initial program set-up. In order to complete this you will navigate to the Network level select Administration > Network Programs, and then hit the orange edit button next to the Standard Christmas Program that was created by our team. The options available will follow with this article concerning general program settings.

Scheduling a Standard Christmas Program visit

Appointments are not required to be enabled for the Christmas program but generally, they are utilized to have the ability to utilize the Appointment Lists feature to determine who will be receiving items on a specific date date & time. If you are not utilizing appointments you will simply see General Visit Details in place of Appointment details. Note without appointments enabled you cannot future date a visit.

The options you see may differ depending on how you initially set up your Standard Christmas Program settings.

Search for the client in the system, if they are a new client add them to the system by creating a profile for them, click here for instructions on how to add a client.

Upon pulling up a client's profile and navigating to the Services tab you will select the blue Standard Christmas Program button. The name may differ depending on what you have assigned. Once this is selected you will be brought to the screen to record a visit, this is broken down into the following sections:

Appointment Details

Pick-Up Date: automatically set to the current date. This can be changed manually if the pick-up or delivery date will be at a future date.
Pick-Up Time: this is the time the client will pick up the Christmas provisions.
Location: automatically set to the location the user is currently linked to. This can be manually changed if the pick-up or delivery location is another one within the network.
Status: automatically set to Pending. This can be changed during the different stages of the Christmas pack creation. Other statuses include Packed, Shipped, Collected, Not Collected, Rescheduled, and Cancelled.
Quantity: if tracked by your organization, this is a field where you will enter how much food was given out. This is customizable within the Visit Options of the program settings, common quantity values are Days, lbs, kgs, Money, Points, Hampers, Bags, or Items.

Who from the household is receiving services for this visit?

The second section details the client and household members and defaults to all household members receiving services. Un-check the box beside the household names of those not receiving services.

Food Provided

This will list items of food available to the client. You can check the box beside the food items being distributed to the client individually, or click on the green Select All and red Select None buttons to select or deselect all options in a list more effectively.

Items/Services Provided

This will list items or services available to the client. Check the box beside the items or services being provided to the client individually, or click on the green Select All and red Select None buttons to select or deselect all options in a list more effectively.

Additional Notes/Information

This field is a text box where you can add information regarding the client and visit.

Referrals

This field contains organizations that the client may be referred to. It is an optional field and can be removed by Network Administrators. Check the box beside the referrals provided to the client individually, or click on the green Select All and red Select None buttons to select or deselect all options in a list more effectively.

You may not necessarily view all of these options when recording a visit. These sections and fields are set at the administrative level, a Network Administrator can customize them for you.

Step-by-step instructions/video walkthrough

Search for the client in the system, if they are a new client add them to the system by creating a profile for them, click here for instructions on how to add a client.
Click on the New Christmas Program button.
Complete the required fields in the Appointment Details section.
In the section Who from the household is receiving services for this visit? un-check any household members not receiving services.
In the Foods Provided section check off the foods provided to the client.
In the Items/Services Provided section check off the items or services provided.
In the Referrals section select any referrals that apply.
Add any extra information in the Additional Notes/Information section.
Click the blue Save button at the bottom right-hand side of the page to save the visit details.

How Do I Generate a Christmas Pick-Up List?

The Pick-Up list (Appointments List) generates a detailed list of client information, including the household size, pick-up date, and provisions. For a general breakdown of supplies distributed by each organization, please see How do I generate a Christmas packing list?

This list details the Client #, their Name, the Appointment Details, Household details, Phone Number, and the Status of the appointment.

To generate a Pick-Up list you will need to be in the Case Management application:

Click Clients in the left-hand navigation pane, and then select Appointments List.

The top section houses the Filters, where you can search for a particular client or pick-up date by Location, Status, Program Type, and Date ranges. Be sure to click the dark blue Filter button after selecting your filter fields from the drop-down options.

The middle section allows you to change the status of appointments in bulk by toggling ON the status you wish to record and placing a checkmark in the box that appears before the clients' names.

The bottom section is the Appointment Lists table that shows client information and appointment details. You can filter this list by using the Search field to search for a particular client by name or client number.

to view the visit details of a client click the blue folder icon in the Status column of the client's row.
to edit the visit click the orange pencil icon in the Status column of the client's row.
to delete the visit click the red trash can icon in the Status column of the client's row.

On the top right-hand side of the Filter header are tool buttons that allow you to:

Copy: copies the Pick-Up List table to your computer's clipboard.
CSV: downloads the Pick-Up List table into a CSV file, generally viewed with Microsoft Excel.
Mail Merge: downloads the Pick-Up List table into a CSV file.
Print: presents a printer-friendly version of the Pick-Up list table.

How Do I Generate a Christmas Packing List?

The packing list details what supplies were packed, and which locations the supplies were distributed from.

To generate a packing list you will need to be in the Case Management application:

Click Clients in the left-hand navigation pane and select Appointments Packing List.

The top section houses the Filters, where you can search for a particular packing list by Location, Status, Program Type, and Date ranges. Be sure to click the dark blue Filter button after selecting your filter fields from the drop-down options.

The second section contains the Packing List table that details the locations and supplies to be packed. The first column shows the locations and each sequential column will list the packed supplies.