Table 3.
Sources of fresh fruit and vegetable (F&V) waste, challenges related to F&V recovery and redistribution, and potential solutions to enhance F&V recovery and redistribution identified by food bank executive leadership (n = 33).
| Step within the Food Banking Distribution Chain |
Sources of Perishable F&V Waste | Challenges to Recovery and Redistribution (number of interviews citing this themea) |
Potential Solutions to Enhance F&V Recovery and Redistribution (number of interviews citing this themea,b) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sourcing | ● Non-recovered surplus of edible F&V from growers, producers, processors, retailers ● Recovery of F&V that is inedible due to product deterioration |
● Acquisition costs (pick and pack fees, high relative price) (21) ● Transportation (costs or lack of) (21) ● Regional variation (18), leading to inequitable supply across network ● Competitive bidding between food banks (15) ● Receipt of inedible donations (damaged or expired shelf-life) (15) ● Problems creating or receiving grants for sourcing or distribution (4) |
● Transportation subsidies funded by food bank network national office or other grants (9 opportunities) ● Produce mixing centers (9 opportunities ● State purchasing programs funded through the state government or associations of food banks (15 current) ● Local donations from regional growers (enhanced donor relationships/communication, gleaning) (19 current, 6 opportunities) |
|
Handling & Operations |
● Limited shelf-life of F&V upon receipt by food bank |
●Lack of cold storage to preserve or extend product shelf-life (18) ● Time needed to repackage bulk product into smaller packaging for household use or to sort out rotten products (11) ● Difficulty creating or implementing nutrition-focused metrics and problems with current metrics (e.g., rewarding higher weight items) (11) |
● Expanding cold storage (13 current, 7 opportunities) ● Processing products near the end of their shelf-life to extend use, such as drying, canning, or preparing meals (10 current) ● Enhanced inventory management systems, such as alerting partner agencies when product is available (10 current) ● Improving food bank metrics to be more nutritionfocused, including using Foods to Encourage framework (16 current, 3 opportunities |
|
Outbound & Agencies |
● Spoilage at food banks or partner agencies |
● Lack of agency cold storage (26) ● Time gaps between food bank receipt and partner agency pick-up (14) ● Lack of transportation to agencies or high cost of transport (11) ● Agencies acting as gatekeepers for F&V and choosing not to distribute because of lack of perceived demand or difficulty handling F&V (10) |
● High agency demand (21 current, 3 opportunities) ● Increasing agency cold storage capacity (12 current, 4 opportunities) |
|
Distribution to Clients |
● Spoilage at partner agencies | ● Lack of client knowledge for F&V preparation or health benefits (10) ●Time gap between partner agency receiving and client distribution (8) ● Low client demand in certain subpopulations (4) |
● Capitalizing on high client demand for fresh product (33 current) ● Direct F&V distributions by the food bank “produce drops” or “mobile markets” (26 current) ● Distributing fresh F&V to children either directly at schools or through child education programs (11 current, 4 opportunities) ● Client education and cooking demonstrations on how to prepare F&V (21 current, 3 opportunities) ● Partnerships with other programs (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, healthcare, health insurance, government, college research and nutrition departments, other non-profits) (23 current, 7 opportunities |
a
Bolded themes were heavily cited (>15 interviews); italicized themes were infrequently cited (<5 interviews).
b
Participants often provided both current and future FB practices as potential solutions for maximizing F&V distribution.
* Denotes emerging themes. Frequency counts are separated to describe the number of EDs who cited a particular solution as a current or future opportunity practice.