What this app is
The South Bend Help Finder is a free guide to food, shelter, and help with bills in South Bend, Indiana. It lists local places that can help, with their hours, phone numbers, and what to bring. It is built for Ann Voll and ThunderStaff. It is not an official service of any listed organization.
No account is needed
You do not need an account to use this app. You do not have to sign in, give your name, or share anything to look up places and call them. Everything in the guide works without an account.
Your location stays on your phone
If you tap Near me, your phone finds where you are so the app can show distances and put the closest places first. Your location is found on your phone only. It is never stored and never sent anywhere.
Counting visits
This app uses Google Analytics, a counting service from Google, to count visits and see which pages help people most. It tells us things like how many people opened the app, which pages they read, and whether they used a phone or a computer. Before anything is stored, part of each address number is taken off, so it cannot point to one person.
The advertising features of Google Analytics are turned off, and nothing counted here is sold or used for ads. This counting never uses your location: the location from Near me is still found on your phone only, is never stored and never sent anywhere, and Google Analytics never receives it.
If you choose to sign in
Signing in is always your choice. You can sign in with Google, Facebook, an email address and password, or your phone number. Sign-in and accounts are handled by Firebase, a Google service.
If you sign in, your day, your plan, your saved places, and any form you choose to save are stored in your account, so they sync and you can see them on your other phones and computers too. If you never sign in, your day, your plan, and your saved places stay only on this phone, and a form you fill in is not kept when you leave.
You can sign out at any time. Signing out does not remove what is stored in your account, and you can ask us to remove it (see Contact below).
You can also delete it yourself, right in the app: How to delete your data.
The chat
The chat uses an AI helper that only knows the places listed in this app. When you type in the chat, the words you type are sent to our helper service so it can answer you. Your location is never sent. The app does not save your chat conversations in your account.
Forms work like this: you can fill in a form, download it, and bring it with you. A form is sent only when you are signed in, you look it over, and you tap Confirm and send. What is sent is the filled form, with everything you wrote. Only three sets of eyes can read a form you sent: you, in your account; the Help Finder team at ThunderStaff; and, for a form meant for a place that has claimed its dashboard in this app, that place's own team. A draft you save stays only in your account. If you delete your account, your saved forms go with it, and our team deletes the forms you sent in that same account-deletion pass.
Nothing is sold
We do not sell your information. We do not share it with advertisers. The app has no ads and no trackers for advertising.
Where the listings come from
The information about each place comes from public sources checked on October 9, 2026: the Food Bank of Northern Indiana pantry listings, Indiana 211, city resource guides, and each place's own website. Hours and services change, so please call a place before you travel.
Contact
Questions about this app or about information stored in your account: contact ThunderStaff.
Last updated October 10, 2026.