Routes any volunteer can follow, from a student to a retiree.
Plan the day's meal or food box routes, then hand each volunteer a link, a QR code or a sign-in code. Nobody installs anything, and you know which households got their delivery.
- Free for up to 50 addresses
- No credit card
- No app to install
The short answer
Updated
Lite Route Planner plans delivery routes for food banks, pantries and meals-on-wheels programs: import client addresses, lasso a route per volunteer, optimize each one, and give volunteers a share link or QR code that opens in any phone browser with no account. On Business, volunteers can also sign in with a code sent to their email and mark each household Visited or Attempted. Business includes unlimited drivers from $59.99 a month, so a roster of 60 volunteers costs the same as 6.
Two ways to hand a route to a volunteer
Use whichever suits the volunteer. Many programs use both: a link for one-time helpers, a driver account for regulars.
| Feature | Driver account | Share link or QR code |
|---|---|---|
| Needs an account | Email and a sign-in code | No |
| App to install | No | No |
| Stops in order with directions | Yes | Yes |
| Can mark Visited or Attempted | Yes | No |
| Can leave a note | Yes | No |
| Plan needed | Business | Any plan |
| How to stop access | Remove from the team | Turn the link off |
Share links are view-only: whoever has the link sees the route but can't mark stops. Anyone with the link can open it, so share it only with the volunteer driving that route.
A client list for Tuesday meal routes
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
| 1 | Client # | Address | City | Route | Meals | Meal type | Door note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | C-1043 | 214 Pine St | Burlington, VT | North | 2 | Regular | Ring twice, uses walker |
| 3 | C-1057 | 77 Grove St | Winooski, VT | North | 1 | Low sodium | Side door, friendly dog |
| 4 | C-1062 | 1180 Shelburne Rd | South Burlington, VT | South | 1 | Vegetarian | Buzz 4B |
| 5 | C-1075 | 35 Maple St | Essex Junction, VT | East | 2 | Regular | Call office if no answer |
| 6 | C-1081 | 9 Church St | Williston, VT | East | 1 | Regular | Back porch, knock loud |
Route, Meals and Meal type come in as custom fields you can color the map by. Copy door notes into each stop's note: that's what volunteers see at the stop.
Set up a delivery day for a dozen volunteers
- 1
Import the client list once
Upload the spreadsheet. Next time, import only new clients; addresses you already have are matched, not added twice.
- 2
Color by route
Color the map by the Route field to check that North, South and East make sense and don't overlap.
- 3
Lasso one route per volunteer
Draw a loop around each volunteer's households. Keep routes short for first-timers.
- 4
Optimize from the kitchen
Start each route at your kitchen or pantry base, and end at the last stop or come back for coolers.
- 5
Hand them out
Have volunteers scan the route's QR code at pickup, text them the link, or assign the route to their driver account.
- 6
See who got their meal
Volunteers with accounts mark each household. Attempted with a note flags anyone who didn't answer, so staff can follow up.
The driver app
Built for volunteers who rarely use their phones
The driver app is a list: the households in order, the drive time to each, and a tap to open directions in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze. Signing in takes an email address and a code we send, with no password to forget. Volunteers who'd rather not sign in at all can scan the route's QR code and follow it, view-only. For anyone without a smartphone, print the route as a PDF.
Why unlimited drivers matters to a volunteer program
Rosters change every week
Students come for a semester, retirees for years. Add and remove volunteers without changing your bill.
No per-driver fee
Business is $59.99 a month ($39.99 billed every six months) for 1,000 new stops a month, with unlimited drivers.
Repeat households don't count again
Clients you deliver to every week are saved once. Only new addresses count toward the month's new stops.
A record for every household
Every delivery stays in the client's history with its date, outcome and note. Color by times visited to see how many visits each household has had.
What volunteers can see
Volunteers see each stop's address and its stop note, and nothing else from your client records. Keep notes practical: which door, the buzzer number, call the office if there's no answer. Leave health and eligibility details in your own system.
Share links can be opened by anyone who has them, so turn a link off once the route is done. For regular volunteers, a driver account is the tidier choice: they see only the routes assigned to them. See how to send a route to a phone.