This article was written by Rosa AZEVEDO, Master in Management Grande Ecole Student and won 3dr Inclusivity Price thesis. Mehdi Amiri-Aref, KEDGE Professor was responsible for this thesis.
The dilemma
In the food banking sector, the pandemic has disrupted supply chains due to health measures restrictions, lockdowns, quarantines, labor shortages, blockages of street routes, and physical distance measures (Rolle, 2020). Indeed, food banks had to go beyond their limits to “feed” vulnerable people, namely the newly unemployed individuals in addition to the previous impoverished ones. Hence, these organizations had to deal with a demand shock, with an increasing number of those financially affected by COVID-19 while, facing a supply shock, with difficulties in obtaining in-kind and monetary donations (Akwii et al., 2021).
Even though this is not the first crisis undermining the food banking sector, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought severe and long-term effects induced by financial issues worldwide. Research on the food bank industry and the resource constraints these organizations encounter is important to identify a range of potential solutions to the problems they face in the singular environment in which they operate (Rolle, 2020).
The case background
In this sense, an analysis was conducted on a non-profit organization, namely a Portuguese Food Bank Against Hunger. The research intended to assess the challenges faced by this organization during COVID-19 and to what extent, lessons could be extracted from this pandemic intensive-learning period, to accommodate future disruptive events.
Therefore, the main challenges faced consisted of the increasing number of people in need of food assistance; the fact that donations have not kept up with demand; the lack of purchasing power of the final consumers; difficulty procuring fresh food in sufficient numbers; the disruption in the normal logistical and transportation process and finally, the unanticipated costs and reduction in financial resources.
Strategies implemented
The most surprising findings ended to be the ability to redistribute a greater amount of food products to the supported institutions, despite the unprecedented and challenging scenario brought by COVID-19. However, the food bank has only managed to maintain its operations due to the innovative strategies implemented, for instance: new strategies for fundraising; new working methods and processes; new controlling systems, and the formalization of functions and teams.
- The new strategies for fundraising focused on finding new methods of contribution to their cause, by creating and formalizing a team of volunteers accountable for the procurement of new partners.
- New working methods and processes encompassed new working shifts, teleworking implementation, stricter security, and hygiene procedures in all the
processes, the implementation of layouts in the warehouse, and lastly, a restructuring new way of allocating and distributing products to the institutions
supported. - New internal controlling systems addressed the execution of more streamlined processes, with a final focus on ensuring that food was not wasted and that the extant food was adequately delivered to the final beneficiaries.
- Finally, the formalization of functions and teams enabled better management of the fundraising and volunteers’ team.
Being able to rapidly obtain food products from different locations, undertake the necessary adjustments to old processes, and adapt to a new distribution system, while handling a higher demand in a continuously changing environment, reflects the importance of agility and resilience within supply chains (Capodistrias et al., 2021).
Final takeaways
Due to the severity of the crisis, all businesses — profit or non-profit — have been forced to reconsider their supply chain strategy and have implemented various trends that have been highlighted in the academic literature (Gupta et al., 2021).
Firstly, just-in-time inventory may be profitable and efficient within normal conditions. However, within scenarios of crises, emergency food baskets were needed to supply some of the institutions that run out of stock.
Therefore, it has become clear in the the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, that this method fails to prepare global supply networks for severe shocks like the COVID-19 one (Raj et al., 2022).
Moreover, it was also notable the trend toward digitalization. In the end, it enhanced the importance of digitization across various sectors, and it has considerably encouraged the reduction of COVID-19 spread, as teleworking and digitally coordinated logistics have helped to mitigate the pandemic's damaging effects (Kovács & Sigala, 2021).
Additionally, it is also important to emphasize the importance of possessing adiversified and local base of suppliers (Butt, 2021; Pujawan & Bah, 2022). This fact
ensures that a shorter food supply chain, during social crises can serve as a backup and a complementary option for addressing the disruption of the food bank distribution system that might happen.
Finally, according to the academic literature, it was stated that the ability of the supply chain to react to unforeseen events, respond to and resist disruptions, and recover from them, while maintaining operational continuity is referred to as supply chain resilience.
As a result, a resilient supply network can adapt to unexpected events and return to its original shape by rectifying specific disruptions or restructuring into a different configuration (Herold et al., 2021; Raassens et al., 2021).
Consequently, this institution has also reshaped its supply chain, due to the innovations prompted by the crises and should be viewed as key lessons, not only for the current pandemic but also for future social crises. Indeed, the innovative strategies implemented resulted from the adaptation of the organization to this unanticipated and disruptive event.
References
- Akwii, E., Plekenpol, R., Shapiro, M., Leib, E., O’Brien, D., & Aldeen, H. (2021). Strengthening food donation operations during COVID-19: key issues and best practices for governments around the globe 2021 Update. www.chlpi.org/FLPC.
- Butt, A. S. (2021). Building resilience in retail supply chains: Lessons learned from COVID-19 and future pathways. Benchmarking. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-09-2021-0514
- Capodistrias, P., Szulecka, J., Corciolani, M., & Strøm-Andersen, N. (2021). European food banks and COVID-19: Resilience and innovation in times of crisis. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2021.101187
- Gupta, R., Rathore, B., & Biswas, B. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on supply chains: lessons learned and future research directions. In International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management. Emerald Group Holdings Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM06-2021-0161
- Herold, D. M., Nowicka, K., Pluta-Zaremba, A., & Kummer, S. (2021). COVID-19 and the pursuit of supply chain resilience: reactions and “lessons learned” from logistics service providers (LSPs). Supply Chain Management, 26(6), 702–714. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-09-2020-0439
- Kovács, G., & Sigala, I. (2021). Lessons learned from humanitarian logistics to manage supply chain disruptions. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 57(1), 41–49. OECD. (2020). The territorial impact of COVID-19: Managing the crisis across levels of government.
- Pujawan, I. N., & Bah, A. U. (2022). Supply chains under COVID-19 disruptions: literature review and research agenda. In Supply Chain Forum (Vol. 23, Issue 1, pp. 81–95). Taylor and Francis Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1080/16258312.2021.1932568
- Raassens, N., Haans, H., & Mullick, S. (2021). Surviving the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study to the supply chain strategies of food service firms in times of a crisis. International Journal of Logistics Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-01-2021-0013
- Raj, A., Mukherjee, A. A., Jabbour, A., & Srivastava, S. K. (2022). Supply chain management during and post-COVID-19 pandemic: Mitigation strategies and practical lessons learned. Journal of Business Research, 142, 1125–1139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.01.037
- Rolle, R. (2020). Mitigating risks to food systems during COVID-19: Reducing food loss and waste.