Abstract
In recent decades food banks have become a worldwide response to the contradicting the coexistence of food losses and waste, on the one hand, and hunger and food insecurity on the other. In Brazil, food banks had a rapid expansion, becoming the object of public policy on Food and Nutrition Security and of non-profit private institutions. Our study presents an unprecedented overview of all the food banks currently active in the Brazilian territory, discussing their performances and perspectives. We conducted descriptive research, aiming to characterize the number, spatial distribution, performance, and modalities of operation of the Brazilian food banks. We mapped 217 active food banks and they all participated in the study. The results revealed the important capillarity of the food banks, which exist in all 27 Brazilian federative units, but also demonstrate the potential and need for expansion. Most of the Brazilian food banks has commercial establishments as their largest donor partners and have fruits and vegetables as their most donated items. They mostly complement the feeding of families at social risk and children served by social institutions. Food and nutrition education actions are offered by all the studied units to donor partners and beneficiary institutions and families.
Highlights
Over the past six decades, food banks have gained worldwide expression as an important and strategic response to the contradictory scenario in which food losses and waste (FLW) and food insecurity coexist
Co-opted, in some regions of the world, by an uncritical logic based on charity [1], in other places, including Brazil, food banks are recognized for their positive impacts in reducing FLW and have been contributing to minimize the hunger and food insecurity caused by social inequalities [2,3]
Until the time of this research, there was no mapping of all Brazilian food banks and, this unprecedented study had the challenge of identifying, locating, and characterizing the facilities distributed across the entire Brazilian territory
Summary
Over the past six decades, food banks have gained worldwide expression as an important and strategic response to the contradictory scenario in which food losses and waste (FLW) and food insecurity coexist. On the other hand, refers to the reduction in the volume of food suitable for human consumption that occurs in the final stage of the food chain. In other words, it is a phenomenon associated with the inefficiency of the distribution (both wholesale and retail) and consumption processes and has a close relationship with conscious food consumption [6]
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