A social entrepreneurial effort to ameliorate food insecurity: Obstacles and opportunities discovered

Abstract

This paper describes the first level of a social entrepreneurial effort to enable supermarkets to donate surplus goods to food banks via an online Donations Management System (DMS). Interviews were conducted with seven supermarkets to explore their current practices. Results suggest that the established practices of supermarkets are sufficient in waste management and donation management and, as such, a DMS is not appropriate for that target.

By highlighting an approach that was not viable, results informed a further study of food banks to explore their needs, resulting in an opportunity to provide coordination services for inter-food bank supply being identified. The key conclusion of this current study is that food banks are in a better position to find innovative ways to manage their supply by working within their horizontal rather than their vertical network.