Achieving equitable food security: How can food bank mobile pantries fill this humanitarian need

Abstract

Hunger occurs in all locations around the globe, from developing to developed countries. In fact, there were over 37 million food insecure individuals (those without access to consistent nutritious food) in the United States in 2018, and this number increased in recent years due to the COVID pandemic. In many countries, food banks are used to consolidate food donations from individuals or government agencies and then provide that food to local partner agencies (such as food pantries and soup kitchens), who distribute it to food insecure individuals. As nonprofit humanitarian organizations, food banks strive to achieve geographic equity in their food distribution, so one area (or county) is not favored over others. However, food banks also want to maximize food distribution with their limited budgets. This equitable distribution versus cost balancing act is made even more challenging since food banks experience extreme variability in both the supply (donations) of food and partner agencies' capacity to deliver food to the food insecure. Our paper focuses on how mobile pantry programs, additional food bank storage capacity, and improved partner agency capacity can be utilized to address this supply and distribution capacity variability while considering food expiration times. Mobile pantry programs allow food banks to distribute food directly to the food insecure by sending their own trucks and employees to locations where food is most needed. Although all three of these approaches can be helpful, our results show that mobile pantries are a more effective approach to achieve high equity levels. This is especially true in the case of produce with relatively short expiration times. We also find that utilizing mobile pantry programs can increase equitable partner agency distribution considerably, because even small amounts of mobile pantry distribution in under-served areas allow for more equitable partner agency distribution in areas with available partner agency distribution capacity. Our research is based on data from our partner food bank, but our modeling and extensive sensitivity analysis should be applicable to many food banks with a similar collection and distribution structure.

A systematic literature review of food banks’ supply chain operations with a focus on optimization models

“…Stauffer et al (2022) also examined the structure of the food bank supply chain, focusing on how the use of mobile pantries for food distribution (i.e. integrating the last link of their food aid supply chain), additional food bank storage capacity and improved partner agency capacity can improve food banks’ performance.…”

“…Fianu and Davis (2018) dealt with a single product, so uncertainty only concerns the available quantities at each donor. Stauffer et al (2022) considered a set of products, so the uncertainty affects the available quantity of each product. Alkaabneh et al (2021) also considered several products, modeling their quantity and quality (i.e.…”

Risk profiling of food security impediments using decision maker’s behavioural preference towards operational risk management

“…As already discussed in the previous sections, most of the earlier studies either proposed conceptual framework or performed mathematical model related to food security barriers and their possible solutions (Akkas & Gaur, 2022 ; Stauffer et al 2020 ; Becker et al, 2022 ; Reimold et al, 2021 ). This study, however, attempts to perform severity assessment of food security impediments as well as profiling of their associated risks.…”

“…They further proposed quantitative model to deal with social as well as environmental concerns. Stauffer et al ( 2020 ) highlighted the reasons behind food insecurity w.r.t. the issue of equitable food distribution to the food insecure individuals.…”

An Evaluation of Food Insecurity in the D.C. Community

“…30 Mobile pantry programs increase total food distribution by three times the normal amount in underserved areas. 31 Particularly with produce that expires quickly, such programs can distribute the items in a timely, flexible, and cost-effective manner. Even higher equity levels can be achieved by a collaborative effort between pre-established mobile clinics and mobile pantries.…”