Table 4.

Examples of Organizational Innovations of European food banks under the COVID-19 pandemic. Our own elaborations based on the framework adapted from Tavassoli and Karlsson [50].

Types of organizational innovation	Innovation practices across the ten case studies
(i) New strategies	Bulgaria: Media event to raise awareness of the critical situation and fundraising.
	France: Production of meals for health care workers. Redistribution of purchased food and food donations that were not surplus food.
	Ireland: Redistribution of purchased food and food donations that were not surplus food.
	Lithuania: A national campaign to recruit new volunteers among volunteers usually assisting traffic police and students.
	Norway: Production of ready meals with ingredients originally destined for commercial kitchens, in cooperation with an external community kitchen.
	UK: Public awareness campaign for food banks in partnership with the media and celebrities (recognition among the public increased from 1 in 10 people in the country to 1 in 3). Redistribution of purchased food and food donations that were not surplus food.
(ii) Knowledge management systems	France: Transformation workshops to prepare meals.
	Ireland: Launching the Community Food Link in collaboration with the Government led Community Call initiative/CC's, which was an interactive map that allowed the public to see if there was emergency food provision close by. Developing strategic partnerships with Local Development Companies (LDC) and large organized groups to identify local needs and manage logistics; 15 new strategic partnerships in 17 counties with community services and organizations.
(iii) New administrative and control systems and processes	Greece: Scheduling system to organize frontline organizations collecting food from the food banks to minimize social contact.
	Ireland: Suspending membership fees for frontline organizations.
	Norway: Scheduling system to organize frontline organizations collecting food from the food banks (time allocations); organizing the food bank in sectors and restricting the number of volunteers per charity who could visit the food bank (max 2 per organization) to minimize social contact.
	UK: Suspending membership fees for frontline organizations.
(iv) New internal structures	Albania: New system to redistribute the food based on requests for specific food from the organizations.
	Bulgaria: Strengthening the capacity to deliver food to more distant locations and launching operations in two new locations. Their offices were turned into a temporary warehouse to offer food aid closer to the city. They also supported frontline organizations and strengthen their limited capacities by equipping them with practical tools such as fridges, crates, vehicles, etc.
	France: Food distribution directly to people in need, such as students.
	Ireland: Streamlining operation and introducing a new collection/allocation model.
	Lithuania: Establishing of a home delivery service. Home delivery of food for people that depended on food aid from closed frontline organizations.
	Norway: New system for internal transport between the food banks in the network.
	Romania: Sharing the increasing volume of donations (especially from the HORECA sector) among the regional food banks.
	UK: Lunch clubs turned into parcel delivery services and community centers started delivering groceries to the doorstep; Additional warehouse space in 11 regional centers. Supply of food to local government centers that would then redistribute the food to the frontline organizations.
(v) New types of external network relations with firms and/or public organizations	Albania: Cooperate with local businesses that produce food locally; new connections with high profile policymakers and leaders. Acting as an intermediary between the food industry and charities for the purchase of food at discounted prices, which benefited both the charities, that could access cheaper food and the food industry, that received large orders of food from the charities.
	Bulgaria: COVID-19 used as a chance to “build strong relationships with the local authorities and be recognized from the food industry and the government”.
	France: New collaborations with local authorities, decentralized administrations, and charities to ensure homogeneous distribution of food aid over a territory; new partnerships to support for caregivers, vulnerable students; strengthening ties and increasing donations from local producers, local purchasing mechanisms to support producers. Public financial support for the purchase and redistribution of food to people in need.
	Lithuania: Partnering with a car rental company to access free vehicles for food collection.
	Norway: New collaborations with local municipalities, volunteer centers and local restaurants to reach people in need.
	Poland: New partnerships with food donors and transport companies, e.g., with suppliers of fruit and vegetables to offices that remained closed; ad hoc ‘feed the medics’ campaigns. Unique Summer Food Collection; “Partner at all times” (Partner na kazdy czas) special certificates for additional industry support under COVID-19.
	Romania: Collaborating with NGOs with limited storage capacity by helping with the redistribution of some of the food. Supporting the Military in partnership with Metro, Danone, and Caroli Foods.
(vi) Hiring of new personnel	Albania: Hiring extra people and double the staff.
	Ireland: Hiring new warehouse operatives.