The Waste Not Want Not Project Research

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The research

The Second Harvest Gleaners Food Bank of West Michigan, Inc., is western Michigan’s regional nonprofit clearinghouse for donated food on its way from the food industry to churches and charity agencies that provide food aid to needy people. As fast as the agencies we served were drawing food from us, we were easily replacing that food with equal or better products. So we were genuinely at a loss as to what else we should be doing.

However, we began to suspect that there were some very widespread practices in the charity food distribution system that could be improved.

So we went back to the United Way with a request that they conduct or fund a thorough review of how the charity food system worked, with an emphasis on discovering how people in the charity food distribution network could work more efficiently and effectively. The result was a two-year $264,000 Heart of West Michigan United Way grant to the food bank to enable us to contract with Michigan State University to conduct that research. We worked very closely with them, often doing parallel research in order to corroborate or test various findings, or pursuing our own lines of inquiry.

Shortcomings revealed

The research concluded that while we have five times the resources needed to end hunger, we could only address one-fifth of the problem.

The research also suggested several ways that charity food distribution centers can close this gap, bringing more food to more people who need it, more effectively and efficiently. The research revealed that the gap between resources and the unmet need is a result of shortcomings in how these abundant resources are distributed.

To most easily grasp the significance of the historic problems of the charity food distribution system and the significance of the Waste Not Want Not improvements, it will be most helpful for you to visualize the distribution system as a multi-sectioned pipeline. Our research examined each section of that pipeline to determine its carrying capacity. Could it move adequate food resources to meet the area’s need, or did it need to be enlarged or unclogged in some way?

For example, if the average family seeking food aid needed seven to 10 days worth of help, but the average agency was providing them with only three days worth of help, our research flagged that as a section of the pipeline that needed to be enlarged or unclogged.

The operative belief behind our work is that there is enough food available to charity agencies to end hunger, and that gravity will naturally draw that food toward the needy unless or until that flow is interrupted or constricted. What begins as a mighty river can shrink to a drop in the bucket.

That is precisely what our research suggests has happened in community after community across the United States, and that is why efforts to end hunger in those communities are failing to meet the need. Enlarge the pipeline or unclog it where needed, and the end of hunger in your locale can be brought to well within your reach.