August 20, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Feeding America, a network of more than 200 food banks, is using logistics and distribution software to help local groups transport food more efficiently.
Grocery stores have become an increasingly important source of food donations, especially as food manufacturers improve their operations and as a consequence have less and less excess food to donate.
But for food banks, it’s more expensive to pick up small amounts of often perishable food from multiple retail stores than to make one big pickup from a manufacturer.
“That’s where our new food has come from, and we have to embrace it,” says Maria Hough, vice president of logistics. “We need the software to minimize costs the best we can.”
Using information about a local group’s truck fleet, the number of pickups and deliveries it has, and the amount of food involved, the software determines the best routes for drivers to take.
In a test of the software at St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, in Phoenix, the organization reduced its number of daily routes from 15 to 13, reduced the number of miles driven by 48 percent, and cut driver overtime by 15 percent. At the same time, the group was able to pick up food donations from 30 additional grocery stores — a significant increase from the more than 50 stores where it was picking up before using the software — without adding any drivers or vehicles.
