Insights for October 2025

Welcome to our Monthly MCI Updates email! We will be sharing the latest updates from MANNA and Feeding America on MCI, MANNA-wide stats, and monthly focuses for our agencies.

2025-2026 TEFAP Forms Now Available

Click here to visit the MCI website where you can access the updated forms, and updated translations in Spanish and Ukrainian!

The new income guidelines have been loaded into MCI to ensure that neighbor eligibility verification remains accurate - no additional action needed!

Data Entry Best Practices + Duplicate Management

Accurate data entry and consistent duplicate management are essential to reporting on food insecurity and improving neighbor services throughout WNC. This month, we’ll focus on best practices that can help ensure neighbors are being accurately represented in MCI.

Data Entry Best Practices

Always search before creating a new neighbor profile. Some of the most effective ways to search are:
Last Name, First Name
Date of Birth
Partial Search (i.e., if a neighbor has a long last name, or if there's a language barrier, try searching only part of their name. For example, instead of typing out "Montgomery," type in only "Mont".)

When adding a new neighbor, check for spelling errors and avoid using nicknames unless a neighbor is uncomfortable providing their full name.

Use proper capitalization and consistent formatting. For example, enter "John Smith" rather than "JOHN SMITH" or "john smith".

Collect date of birth or phone number. While not required, this can provide a unique identifier which can help when looking up returning neighbors.

Duplicate Management

Duplicate records can make it harder to get an accurate picture of the number of neighbors served throughout the network. The MCI platform offers a Duplicate Management Tool, which makes identifying and resolving duplicates easy!

Profiles with matching criteria of 50% or more (e.g., same address, first and last name, DOB, etc.) will be funneled to the queue in the Duplicate Management Tool. You can find the tool within the main menu.

Click here for detailed directions on resolving duplicates with the Duplicate Management tool.

Reminders

If a device powers down or gets overheated, you can use a smart phone to complete intake. Just visit: network.neighborintake.org and enter your agency's access credentials. If not connected to wi-fi, data rates may apply.

If for some reason you are unable to complete live intake in MCI, you can always back-date entries to ensure all of your neighbors and visits have been captured. Click here for instructions on back-dating entries.

September 2025 - Full Agency Snapshot

Feeding America Bug Fixes + Updates

Bug Fixes

When creating a new household or updating an existing household's address, selecting a suggested address did not consistently autofill the state or city. This issue has been resolved.