Plentiful Uses PagerDuty to Expand Food Access with Dignity

Across the U.S., the wait at food banks can often be multiple hours. Families experiencing food insecurity line sidewalks in every season to receive nutritious meals or groceries, unsure what will be available when they finally reach the front. For food providers, the process is just as difficult-relying on paper forms, guesswork, and outdated information to manage overwhelming demand. Plentiful was created to change that.

A Platform Designed for Dignity and Efficiency

Launched in 2016 through a collaboration of funders and food banks in New York City, Plentiful is a free, nonprofit platform designed to strengthen the connection between neighbors and the providers who serve them. Its mission is simple yet transformative: bring dignity, predictability, and efficiency to food access. Plentiful serves millions of households through two free tools:

• For neighbors: An app to find nearby food programs, view accurate, up-to-date information, and, where available, reserve a visit. Wait times drop from hours to minutes, and the experience is private, predictable, and available in nine languages.
• For providers: A digital hub for managing visits, communicating instantly with clients, and producing real-time reports. Providers save over 144 hours a year on average and gain the ability to plan better with accurate data.

Across the platform, Plentiful has helped serve more than 5.7 million households, facilitated 240,000+ survey responses, and cut check-in times by up to 88%. What was once a long wait in line is now a more transparent, quick, and dignified process. The results speak volumes, and yet demand continues to grow. With household food insecurity on the rise each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Plentiful has expanded from three states in 2024 to 15 in 2025. Neighbor use of Plentiful has grown by 39% and Provider's have grown by 29% over the last year.

The Challenge of Reliability at Scale

Plentiful faced the same challenge as many community-centered nonprofits: to ensure their digital platform is reliable with limited resources while also meeting the growing demand. Outages and downtime mean neighbors can't make reservations and providers have to revert to manual intake and food distribution processes, leading to a time-consuming, potentially chaotic day for everyone.

"We didn't know what we didn't know," recalls Bryant Casteel, Plentiful's Technical Lead. "There was no rotation, no system for monitoring. If the site went down on a weekend, we'd discover it because someone on the team happened to notice."

For a lean engineering team, the burden was heavy and the stakes were high.

Building Resilient Tech Infrastructure

Plentiful's team turned to PagerDuty to strengthen its digital infrastructure. By integrating with Plentiful's variety of tech tools, such as SolarWinds, AWS, CloudWatch, and Sentry, PagerDuty transformed the team's approach from reactive to proactive.

Now, the system detects early warning signs before they impact neighbors and providers. Outages that once required Saturday scramble sessions are avoided altogether. Error rates have dropped dramatically, improving availability to "three nines" and giving engineers back valuable time.

"Keeping the provider system up is critical to food security," Casteel explains. "If the app goes down, providers don't know who's coming or what they need. With PagerDuty, we can maintain reliability and reduce the burden on our team."

The Power of Unrestricted Funding

In addition to using PagerDuty's platform, Plentiful received an unrestricted grant in late 2024 through PagerDuty.org's funding program to support organizations working at the intersections of healthcare and sustainability . For CEO Catherine Compitello, this kind of support is essential.

"Unrestricted dollars are rare but critical," she says. "They allow us to focus on food insecurity and build the infrastructure needed to support it, rather than bending to narrow funding requirements. This partnership has been game-changing."

Plentiful's next chapter is focused on scaling both its reach and reliability. Its expansion plan prioritizes three levers:

1. Strengthening its tech infrastructure to support millions of concurrent users.
2. Building partnerships that ensure every pantry has the training and tools to fully leverage Plentiful's platform.
3. Generating data insights that help providers, food banks, resource allocators, and policymakers understand food access demand trends in real-time so they can coordinate timely responses to early warning signals of increased demand or reduced supply.

PagerDuty's grant has already enhanced the ability of Plentiful's small but mighty support team to serve even more users, especially on the nights and weekends.

"In 2024, our platform facilitated more than 3.3 million visits to food pantries, serving more than 1.2 million household members. With dozens of new providers in more than 10 states onboarding every month, we're on track to more than double that reach within the next two years.

"The vision is clear: by scaling responsibly and efficiently, Plentiful can become the connective tissue of the charitable food system-ensuring that any Neighbor, in any state, can easily find the food they need."

Looking Ahead: AI, Privacy, and the Future of Food Access

As Plentiful grows, its team remains committed to protecting client "neighbor" privacy. Individuals own their data, can delete their profiles at any time, and never see their personal information shared across pantries.

Looking to the future, Plentiful is exploring how AI can extend its reach without compromising those principles. From creating more accurate translations for non-English speakers, to supporting demand forecasting and provider reporting, adopting AI responsibly holds promise for helping the small team do more with less.

"AI never touches neighbor data," notes Product Director Bryan Moran. "We also keep humans in the loop to fact-check outputs. Accuracy and dignity come first."

Fighting Hunger, One Reservation at a Time

At its heart, Plentiful is about much more than technology. It is about dignity, efficiency, and the simple human right to access food without fear, confusion, or waste. PagerDuty helps make that possible by keeping the platform reliable. For neighbors, that means waiting ten minutes instead of two hours. For providers, it means knowing who to expect and how to plan. And for Plentiful, it means continuing to expand a model of food access that is truly human-centered.

"This is about centering the needs of neighbors and providers. A focus that will be even more critical in the months ahead, as food banks and pantries across the U.S. prepare for an expected rise in need. With the right technology and the right support, we can strengthen the entire food access ecosystem" concludes Compitello.

PagerDuty is committed to supporting our nonprofit partners with technology and philanthropic investments through the PagerDuty Impact Fund. Learn how PagerDuty can automate, orchestrate, and accelerate urgent work at your mission-driven organization by starting a free trial today .