Remodelling traditional food bank supply chain to a virtual supply chain in Sri Lankan context

Abstract

Introduction

“Food insecurity” is a global issue, affecting 3.9 million individuals in Sri Lanka (SL) with severe consequences (FAO and WFP, 2023). Food Banks are a non-profit initiative focused on reducing food insecurity, with a supply chain that can be outlined as follows, donors - supermarkets providing surplus food (Reusken, Cruijssen, and Fleuren, 2023) and individuals donating funds; food banks - organizations that distribute food at free of charge; and beneficiaries - individuals and families receiving assistance from food banks (Rivera, Smith and Ruiz, 2023).

Multiple difficulties are faced by parties involved in food bank supply chains. Individual donors lack personalized feedback on the impact of their donation, and struggle to find and give to preferred causes leading to lack of motivation to continue donations (Rivera, Smith and Ruiz, 2023). Food banks face challenges due to inappropriate fundraising strategies, high cost, a lack of regular donations, volunteer dependence, a lack of organizational capacity, managing demand and distribution and perishable inventory (Stötzer and Kaltenbrunner, 2023). Beneficiaries struggle with unsuitable, unusable or low-nutrition food, that is spoiled or not meeting beneficiary’s nutritional requirements (Stein, 2022). The study proposes a virtual food bank concept to reduce supply chain costs, increase donations, and enhance beneficiary experience. There is no research conducted on food banks such as ‘Kadamandiya’ food bank in SL, and related culture.