Parallel Model

We have a food bank system that – up to now – has served us well. It functions through several layers of interdependency and a reliance on the healthy demand side of a functional supply chain process. (See Traditional Supply Chain Process – Appendix A) If – as we anticipate – the demand side experiences a progressive decline in consumer purchases, volume and capacity will be adapted to meet the current demand and thereby minimizing surplus. Put another way, “Purchasing Consumers” are becoming “Non-Purchasing Consumers” at a faster and more pervasive rate than traditional process planning anticipated. To compensate, efficiency models will dictate production and supply cut-backs which inevitably will create critical shortages in the food bank network.

The obvious answer is for food banks to force supply by additional purchases at the “Food Bank Distributor” level. However, this argument is flawed for the following reasons:

1. Food is donated to the “Food Bank Distributor” level from the demand side. If there is no surplus, there is no donation. And providing higher levels of surplus on the demand side is not in their economic models.
2. “Food Bank Providers” are struggling with:
	Diminishing charitable financial support which makes additional purchases from the “Food Bank Distributor” difficult, if not impossible.
	An overwhelming amount of daily activity – working seven days a week making “milk runs” to organizations that promise surplus, if it is available, so they can provide for the exponentially increasing number of clients.
	Lack of business resources to deal with the intricacies of the supply chain problem – which is probably not resolved by a single community provider.

The solution is actually much simpler than it appears – and it could become a model that is capable of being replicated across the country.