Managing the Unpredictable: Logistics at the Heart of Food Banks

Every year, on the last weekend of November, Food Banks organize their National Food Drive in stores across France. This weekend of solidarity is a historic annual event, when volunteers, recognizable by their orange vests, call on the public’s generosity to support the most disadvantaged throughout the year. These collections are essential as food insecurity worsens: “We are seeing an increase in the number of beneficiaries, ranging from 6% to 10% depending on the year,” regrets Yesim Broet, head of the Food Resources department at the French Federation of Food Banks.

The causes include the growing precariousness of society and the labor market, particularly since COVID, as well as inflation, which has accelerated for food products notably due to the war in Ukraine. Conversely, “donations are declining,” she notes regretfully. As France’s leading food aid network, despite the constant challenges it faces, Food Banks can rely on flawless logistics.

Forty years after the first Food Bank was created in Arcueil, in the Île-de-France region, the network now has 79 Food Banks and 31 branches across mainland France and the overseas departments and territories. “That represents nearly 162,000 square meters of warehouses, explains Yesim Broet. Each Food Bank has its own warehouse, offices, trucks and, of course, both volunteer and paid staff. ” At the end of 2022, the Food Bank network had 680 vehicles, half of which were refrigerated. “Every morning, thanks to these trucks, our teams carry out what we call collection rounds—that is, they visit the hypermarkets, supermarkets and wholesale markets in each department to pick up the previous day’s unsold items,” explains Yesim Broet.

Once collected, food is sorted and categorized in the warehouse according to its type, temperature and expiration date. It is then entered into an ERP system, an inventory management tool that lists every product at every Food Bank. Distribution comes next. “We support more than 6,050 organizations,” explains Yesim Broet. They include the French Red Cross, Emmaüs, Secours Catholique, municipal social action centers, neighborhood associations and social grocery stores. Distribution is adapted to each organization’s logistics capabilities.

“We schedule visits to our warehouses for organizations that have their own vehicles and have placed an order in advance,” she continues. Each order takes account of the number of beneficiaries the organization supports, its storage capacity and its distribution arrangements. “An organization distributing food through street outreach does not have the same product needs as one providing distributions in emergency hotels,” explains Yesim Broet. For organizations without vehicles, Food Banks handle delivery. Finally, in certain areas, they distribute food directly to beneficiaries themselves, for example in rural areas.

“A Food Bank is a genuine small and medium-sized enterprise, managing inbound and outbound flows and operating like a food-industry player, but entirely dedicated to solidarity and fighting insecurity.”

“Logistics are essential to the smooth operation of our network because we deal with unpredictability every day, explains Yesim Broet. By definition, a donation is unpredictable. Our logistics are organized for maximum responsiveness. When a donor contacts us, we need to quickly find an available truck, collect the donation, then sort, code, store and distribute it as soon as possible.” This precisely orchestrated logistics operation therefore requires considerable agility. To achieve this, Food Banks can rely on a very dense geographic network. In addition to the various Food Bank branches and more than 6,000 partner organizations, the network also calls on road freight carriers. “We are increasingly entering into national agreements with them in order to benefit from donated transport services or preferential rate schedules.”

In addition, to reduce the activity’s carbon footprint, the Food Bank network’s logistics are shared. “Food Banks are organized at three levels: the department, the region and the national level, through the Federation, says Yesim Broet. We work closely together at these three levels, which enables us to pool our logistics resources and reduce our environmental impact.” In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, for example, the network received funding to purchase two trucks. “These trucks never run empty. Flows are optimized between donor sites and the region’s different Food Banks to ensure the best possible allocation of a donor’s contribution, as well as the sharing of product pallets among Food Banks.”

This resource sharing is made possible by a unique tool: Clickdon. “When we receive a major donation, the information is passed on at every level through this tool: the Federation, the region and the department. Each Food Bank reports its needs to its region, and each region forwards the information to the Federation.” Shared, supportive and eco-responsible logistics make it possible to save 75,000 metric tons of food from destruction each year for redistribution. “A Food Bank is a solidarity-based organization, an expert in food logistics, and much more besides: in its area, it plays a major role in the social support offered to people it welcomes and in the assistance provided to partner organizations. Food aid must always be a stepping stone out of insecurity,” Yesim Broet nevertheless wishes to emphasize.