Table 2.

Interview Questions Related to Flow of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables (F&V) along the Food Banking Distribution Chain, asked of Food Bank (FB) Executive Leadership.

Sourcing

● What role do you think Feeding America National Organization (FANO) should have in produce distribution?

● Do you feel as if FANO offers you enough opportunity to source F&Vs? What are they doing well at in terms of produce distribution? What could they do better at?

● Is there anything FANO is doing or thinking of doing that would prevent you from distributing more F&Vs?

● Does your FB service area include F&V growers, producers, or processors?

● Do you feel as if the net cost of purchasing fresh produce is relatively high or relatively low for your FB? What increases or decreases costs?

● In your opinion, does the U.S. have enough F&Vs available to meet the needs of every FB in the U.S., or do you feel as if FBs must compete for a scarce resource? To what extent do you feel your FB has access to all the F&Vs it can use? Why or why not?

Handling and Operations

● What does the handling of fresh foods look like at your organization?

● Outbound and agencies

● Can you describe the capacity of the agencies you serve for distributing fresh F&Vs?

● What is your perception of F&V demand at the level of the agency?

Distribution to Clients

● In your perception, what is client demand for F&Vs at the pantries your FB distributes to?

Strategic Planning

● What are key opportunities that you see at your FB for increasing F&V distribution, the “low hanging fruit”?

● If you had to point to the key bottleneck for your FB in distribution of fresh F&V’s, which would it be: sourcing, handling/operations, delivery to agencies, distribution to clients, or planning?