Progress 05/15/20 to 04/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Our intent in this project was to reach audiences that included researchers in economics, industry practitioners and government officials concerned with food retailing, food security, environmental degradation, and the economic efficiency of food supply-chains. In the last reporting period, we explained how our target audience broadened to include other audiences, including practitioners and researchers, in the supply chain management and sustainable food supply chain fields. To that end, we presented our research at major supply-chain management (Production Operations and Management, and INFORMS) and industrial organization (European Association of Researchers in Industrial Economics) conferences. We continue to see a broad interest in the intersection between research that addresses both food insecurity and retail operations, as well as access to food. In the final reporting period, and beyond, we are going to present the remaining projects funded under this grant at future conferences in agricultural economics and supply chain management. We will continue to engage with local food bank advocacy groups as we have now become part of the local research ecosystems on food supply chain sustainability, food insecurity, and food banks operations. Changes/Problems:As we explained above, our primary barrier to completing the Stage 3 research was the weakness of the MMG food-insecurity imputation process. By using the Current Population Survey (CPS) data, Ms. Stoliarova is working to circumvent this issue and completed one research project that highlights the relationship between food bank usage and food insecurity by using the CPS food insecurity supplement directly. We hope to publish this research either in 2024or 2025 as she completes her dissertation research. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our project has allowed us to expose one PhD student, Katya Stoliarova, to modern methods of empirical research in agricultural and applied economics, and the study of food insecurity and food bank operations more generally. All of the PIs on the grant, and affiliated researchers, have also become engaged and embedded with the food bank and food insecurity research ecoystems, and will continue to work with these groups in the future. As we explain in more detail above, we have initiated a new research project with economists at ERS-USDA that build on our work with food banks that examines the implications of food bank donations for retail inventory-management and retailers' production efficiency. We expect this research to continue beyond the completion of this research award, and will be submitted for presentation at nextyear's POMS (Production and Operations Management Society (supply chain management)and AAEA (agricultural and applied economics) meetings). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Throughout the reporting period of the grant, we have presented papers on food banks, food bank donations, and food insecurity at professional meetings such as the annual meetings of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), the Production and Operations Management Soceity (POMS), INFORMS, and the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE). We have also discussed our research more informally with local (Arizona Association of Food Banks) and national (Feeding America) food bank organizations. We have used these opportunities for professional engagement to embed ourselves in the food bank and food insecurity research ecosystems, so will continue to interact with researchers and policy officials in the future. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Over the performance period of the grant, we have achieved all of the above goals, although our approach under Stage 3 had to be modified to move away from the MMG data set to use data from the Current Population Survey (CPS, U.S. Bureau of Census) to study the effect of food bank usage on food insecurity. Our initial expectation was that the MMG data would generate county-level measures of food insecurity that we could match with county-level donations from our Donation Source Report (DSR) data obtained from Feeding America-affiliated food banks. However, working with Dr. Craig Gundersen, who developed the MMG data set, we realized that the MMG food insecurity data were generated as fitted values from parameters estimated using the county-level CPS observations. Because there was no way to econometrically distinguish the independent effect of county-level donations with this data, we changed our approach to use the food bank usage questions in the CPS directly to measure the effect of food bank visitation on food insecurity. This research has produced one working paper (reported above) and will form one chapter of Ms. Stoliarova's PhD dissertation. However, the approach in that working paper is indeed different from that described in the Stage 3 narrative above. At the completion date of the grant (4/2024) we continue to work on this part of the research, and will produce a publishable paper in the coming months. To this end, we continue to work with Dr. Gundersen on better ways to examine the effect of donations themselves on food insecurity in a way that does not rely on the MMG data. This remains for future research, but Ms. Stoliarova is committed to research on food banks in her academic career, so we are confident that this initial problem will also be answered in the future. Our ongoing research with Dr. Anne Byrne of the Economic Research Service, USDA on the inventory-management implications for food bank donations represents another potential publication under our AFRI-NIFA funding. While not formally part of our proposed research, we believe this is a natural extension of our insights into the food retailing - food banks nexus that will change the way managers in both the food bank and food retailing space think about their co-dependency relationship. Namely, in this research we identify a mechanism that has previously been overlooked - food bank donations help retailers become more efficient with their inventory-management decisions. Because inventory management represents a core competency for food retailers, managing inventory more efficiently represents a source of additional margin to donating retailers. Margins in food retailing are already razor-thin, so gaining an advantage through managing inventories more efficiently truly is "found money" in the food retailing space. We intend to submit this working paper for publication review in the coming months.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Stoliarova, K., T. J. Richards, and L. Chenarides. Food insecurity and food bank donations. Working paper, Morrison School of Agribusiness, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. June 2023.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Byrne, A., Lowrey, J., and T. J. Richards. Food bank donations and inventory management efficiency. Working paper, Morrison School of Agribusiness, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.
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Progress 05/15/20 to 07/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Our intent in this project was to reach audiences that included researchers in economics, industry practitioners and government officials concerned with food retailing, food security, environmental degradation, and the economic efficiency of food supply-chains. In the last reporting period, we explained how our target audience broadened to include other audiences, including practitioners and researchers, in the supply chain management and sustainable food supply chain fields. To that end, we presented our research at major supply-chain management (Production Operations and Management, and INFORMS) and industrial organization (European Association of Researchers in Industrial Economics) conferences. We continue to see a broad interest in the intersection between research that addresses both food insecurity and retail operations, as well as access to food. In the final reporting period, and beyond, we are going to present the remaining projects funded under this grant at future conferences in agricultural economics and supply chain management. We will continue to engage with local food bank advocacy groups as we have now become part of the local research ecosystems on food supply chain sustainability, food insecurity, and food banks operations. Changes/Problems:As we explained above, our primary barrier to completing the Stage 3 research was the weakness of the MMG food-insecurity imputation process. By using the Current Population Survey (CPS) data, Ms. Stoliarova has managed to circumvent this issue and completed one research project that highlights the relationship between food bank usage and food insecurity by using the CPS food insecurity supplement directly. We hope to publish this research either in 2023 or 2024. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our project has allowed us to expose one PhD student, Katya Stoliarova, to modern methods of empirical research in agricultural and applied economics, and the study of food insecurity and food bank operations more generally. All of the PIs on the grant, and affiliated researchers, have also become engaged and embedded with the food bank and food insecurity research ecoystems, and will continue to work with these groups in the future. As we explained in the last progress reports, we have initiated a new research project with economists at ERS-USDA that build on our work with food banks that examines the implications of food bank donations for retail inventory-management and retailers' production efficiency. We expect this research to continue beyond the completion of this research award, and will be submitted for presentation at new year's POMS and AAEA meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Throughout the reporting period of the grant, we have presented papers on food banks, food bank donations, and food insecurity at professional meetings such as the annual meetings of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), the Production and Operations Management Soceity (POMS), INFORMS, and the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE). We have also discussed our research more informally with local (Arizona Association of Food Banks) and national (Feeding America) food bank organizations. We have used these opportunities for professional engagement to embed ourselves in the food bank and food insecurity research ecosystems, so will continue to interact with researchers and policy officials in the future. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Over the performance period of the grant, we have achieved all of the above goals, although our approach under Stage 3 had to be modified to move away from the MMG data set to use data from the Current Population Survey (CPS, U.S. Bureau of Census) to study the effect of food bank usage on food insecurity. Our initial expectation was that the MMG data would generate county-level measures of food insecurity that we could match with county-level donations from our Donation Source Report (DSR) data obtained from Feeding America-affiliated food banks. However, working with Dr. Craig Gundersen, who developed the MMG data set, we realized that the MMG food insecurity data were generated as fitted values from parameters estimated using the county-level CPS observations. Because there was no way to econometrically distinguish the independent effect of county-level donations with this data, we changed our approach to use the food bank usage questions in the CPS directly to measure the effect of food bank visitation on food insecurity. This research has produced one working paper (reported above) and will form one chapter of Ms. Stoliarova's PhD dissertation. However, the approach in that working paper is indeed different from that described in the Stage 3 narrative above. We continue to work with Dr. Gundersen on better ways to examine the effect of donations themselves on food insecurity in a way that does not rely on the MMG data. This remains for future research, but Ms. Stoliarova is committed to research on food banks in her academic career, so we are confident that this initial problem will also be answered in the future.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Stoliarova, K., T. J. Richards, and L. Chenarides. Food insecurity and food bank donations. Working paper, Morrison School of Agribusiness, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. June 2023.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Byrne, A., Lowrey, J., and T. J. Richards. Food bank donations and inventory management efficiency. Working paper, Morrison School of Agribusiness, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.
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Progress 05/15/23 to 07/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:As a reminder, our initial plan was to reach audiences that included researchers in economics, industry practitioners and government officials concerned with food retailing, food security, environmental degradation, and the economic efficiency of food supply-chains. In the last reporting period, we have continued to broaden the reach of our research on food banks, and have again presented research at major supply-chain management (Production Operations and Management, and INFORMS) and industrial organization (European Association of Researchers in Industrial Economics) conferences. We continue to see a broad interest in the intersection between research that addresses both food insecurity and retail operations, as well as access to food. We continue targeting our research at academic and practitioner audiences interested in this nexus as well. Changes/Problems:As we explained in the previous report, our primary barrier to completing the Stage 3 research was the weakness of the MMG food-insecurity imputation process. By using the Current Population Survey (CPS) data, Ms. Stoliarova has managed to circumvent this issue and is making good progress in completing her research. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The PhD student referred to above, Katya Stoliarova, has learned a considerable amount about food bank operations and their role in mitigating food insecurity and food waste through her research. Beyond ASU, we continue to present papers from this project at major supply chain (POMS, INFORMS) and agricultural economics (AAEA) meetings. We have initiated a new research project with economists at ERS-USDA that build on our work with food banks that examines the implications of food bank donations for retail inventory-management and retailers' production efficiency. We expect this research to continue beyond the completion of this research award, and will be submitted for presentation at new year's POMS and AAEA meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our research results have been communicated through the meetings described above. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the final reporting period, we intend to complete the analysis of the Map the Meal Gap (MMG) and food donations data, and mentor Ms. Stolivarova as she completes her dissertation. After she defends her dissertation, we will prepare a manuscript for submission to either the AJAE, AEPP, or CJAE on the relationship between food bank donations and food insecurity.We will also continue our research on the operational implications of food bank donations through our project with ERS-USDA researchers, which we expect to continue beyond the end of this grant.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
As reported in previous progress reports, we have substantially completed Stages 1,2,4, and 5 of the supporting objectives described above, and are still working to complete Stage 3. As we explained in the last progress report, our progress in completing Stage 3 was slowed by weaknesses in the Map the Meal Gap data from Feeding America. However, our PhD student,Katya Stoliarova, has found a way to circumvent this issue, and is now working to complete her dissertation, and the paper that focuses on food banks and food insecurity. We anticipate that this paper will be submitted for review in an agricultural economics or food policy journal within the next 6 months.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Lowrey, J. D., Richards, T. J., & Hamilton, S. F. (2023). Food donations, retail operations, and retail pricing. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 25(2), 792-810.
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Progress 05/15/22 to 07/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:In this reporting period, we presented our research findings to three different stakeholder groups. First, we met with the Arizona Association of Food Banks (AAFB) to discuss our research findings in general, both our objectives relevant to food insecurity (Stage 3) and those related to retailing performance and retail food waste (Stages 1, 2, 4, and 5). Second, we presented our work at academic meetings (Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) meetings, Production Operations and Management (POM) conference), seminars at U.C. Berkeley, Arizona State University, and Northeastern University. Our target audience in these presentations consisted of other academic researchers, and any practitioners or government officials who may attend academic meetings. Academically, our audience spans interdisciplinary groups of general economists, agricultural economists, health economists, and academics in the field of supply chain management. Third, we discussed our research with food retailers through a series of one-on-one interviews, and through the Arizona Food Marketing Association. Changes/Problems:Our primary data challenge in achieveing the Stage 3 goals thus far has been merging the county-level MMG (Map the Meal Gap, Feeding America) food insecurity data with our store-level Donation Source Report (DSR) data. Because stores are located at specific locations, and counties encompass a much larger area, we have been struggling to better understand how to model the relationship between point-level donations and disperse-area food insecurity rates. Our proposed solution involves bringing more stores into the DSR data set, and using a deeper cross-sectional notion of variation to help identify the causal effects of donations on food insecurity rates. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have provided the following opportunities for training and professional development: 1. We have one PhD student working full time on understanding the food insecurity implications of food banks, so her PhD training will be completely focused on this topic; 2. We have discussed our research with USDA-ERS officials, who have developed a recent and abiding interest in the implications of food bank usage on food insecurity. In particular, Anne Byrne, who is a recent ERS hire, is interested primarily in food banks, so we have discussed the possibility of extending our research with her help; 3. There are many PhD students in attendance at our academic and practitioner meetings, so our findings have been widely diseminated to both groups. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have presented our findings in both organized academic meetings, and in more informal meetings with local and national groups interested in food banks, food retailing, food insecurity, and in the implications of food banks for secondary markets, closed-loop supply chains for food, and inventory management efficiency by food retailers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we intend to complete the review process for the MSOM publication described above, start another on the inventory-management implications of food bank donations, and to focus on completing our research on Stage 3 of the objectives described in our proposal. That is, we intend to examine the implications of food bank donations for food insecurity levels measured at the county level.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the last reporting period, we have substantially achieved our objectives described under Stages 1, 2, 4, and 5, which have been published as mansucripts in the European Review of Agricultural Economics, and will soon be published in Manufacturing and Services Operations Management, which is a top journal in the supply chain management field. We have made significant progress toward completing our objectives under Stage 3, but ran into data problems in merging the MMG data with our DSR data. These hurdles have been largely resolved, however, so we should have all objectives completed by the next reporting period. We will be presenting the results of our Stage 3 research at the AAEA meetings in Anaheim this summer, and a PhD student (Katya Stolyarova), will be focusing on this part of the research as part of her dissertation. We are fully confident in her abilities to complete this research.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
John D Lowrey, Timothy J Richards, Stephen F Hamilton, Food Banks and Retail Markups, European Review of Agricultural Economics, 2021;, jbab047, https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbab047
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Hamilton, S. F., Lowrey, J., & Richards, T. J. (2021). Food Banks and Food Retailing. Second-round review at Manufacturing and Services Operations Management (top tier supply-chain management journal).
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Progress 05/15/21 to 05/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience consists of academic research professionals in the fields of agricultural economics, retailing and marketing, and supply chain management. We are also targeting practitioners in the retailing industry, and food-bank managers throughout the U.S. As our research has evolved, we have also begun to target public policy officials interested in food insecurity, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the clear demands placed on food banks in the U.S. Changes/Problems:Our only barrier to completion has been finding food insecurity data at a sufficient level of granularity to match our food-bank donation data. Of the food bank data sets that we have access to (including Mid-Ohio, Iowa, and Central Texas Food Banks) only the Central Texas data has proven to be sufficiently rich to identify the parameters of interest. The methodological issue in this project has been isolating the geographic impact of donations, which are centralized at a specific food bank, with a more geographically-disperse client audience. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have submitted two manuscripts under this grant to the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS, the top professional supply chain management association) meetings, and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) meetings. We have presented papers funded by this grant in the past two years at the European Association of Agricultural Economists(EAAE) and INFORMS conferences, both to very receptive audiences. We have also summarized our work to several food bank boards, state food bank associations, and seminar participants at various universities in the U.S. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have disseminated our results through the publications and presentations described above. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we hope to complete the food insecurity element of our proposed research. That is, we intend to examine the causal impact of food-bank donations on local food insecurity rates. We have one PhD student working full time this summer on this project, and a post-doctoral scholar who is organizing the cleaning the food bank donation and county-level food insecurity data. We will complete this project, and have a manuscript ready for submission, by the terminal date for this project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have two publications pursuant to the objectives described in Stages 1, 2, and 4 that have either been published (European Review of Agricultural Economics, 2022) or that are in late-stage review (Manufacturing and Services Operations Management, 2022). We have a third manuscript in preparation that addresses the objective described in Stage 4, and another discussion paper that captures the topics described in Stage 5. We are working on another manuscript on this topic, targeting the supply-chain literature, that is also attributed to this grant. In this manuscript, we consider the operational role of food banks, and how food banks and retailers can operate more efficiently as a partnership to both alleviate food insecurity, and increase retailer profitability.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Lowrey, J. D., Richards, T. J., & Hamilton, S. F. Food Banks and Retail Markups. European Review of Agricultural Economics. Accepted and forthcoming, 2022.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Lowrey, J. D., Richards, T. J., & Hamilton, S. F. Retailing and Food Banks. Second round review, Manufacturing and Services Operations Management. Economics.
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Progress 05/15/20 to 05/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:We have substantially broadended and deepened our target audience relative to that described in our proposal. Since beginning our research program, we have received input from, and had discussions with: (1) leadership at Feeding America (the umbrella organization for 200+ food banks across the US, (2) supply-chain experts at Feeding America, (3) leadership at the Arizona Association of Food Banks, (4) the CEO of St. Mary's Food Bank (the first food bank in the US, and the largest in the Phoenix metro area), (5) several food retailers who donate to food banks, (6) academic audiences in not only agricultural economics, but in the broader field of supply chain management. In fact, two of the manuscripts we have developed as a result of our research funding are targeted to food supply-chain / sustainable supply chain audiences, and have been met with substantial interest. As the project develops, we intended to build our relationships with industry, and the supply chain field, as well as our initial audience in agricultural economics. Changes/Problems:We have encountered no major obstacles to achieving our proposed goals within the timeline provided, but may seek to bring more stakeholders into our research program as the level of general interest develops. As described above, we have generated substantial industry (retailing and food bank) research interest with our project, so intend to bring more organizations into our research program as time as resources allow. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We are employing one PhD student as ASU under this project, who is learning to apply econometric methods of policy-evaluation, how to frame practical research problems, data-base creation, and how to write effectively. We also plan to use this grant to reach out to Feed America and food bank management groups in order to help them better understand the economic mechanisms that define their relationship with food retailers, and agricultural donators upstream. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have presented the papers described above at the 2020 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) virtual meetings, the 2020 INFORMS supply chain virtual meetings, and the 2020 Production Operations and Management Society (POMS) virtual meetings. We intend to present more of this work at invited seminars (Cornell University; Idaho State University; Michigan State University; Oregon State University, and others) the 2021 AAEA meetings, the 2021 European Agricultural Economics Association (EAAE) meetings, and the 2021 POMS meetings. Our research is reaching a broad and interdisciplinary group of scholars, both in the US, and in countries in Europe and elsewhere. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to complete the Stage 3 research (food bank donations and food insecurity) in the summer of 2021, and present the results of this research to academic audiences this fall, and next spring.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have made excellent progress toward the goals described in Stages 1 - 5 of the research program above. We have completed the theoretical model of retailer price discrimination, ordering, inventory management, and retail donations. This research is currently in manuscript form (see research products above), and will be submitted for publication review before June 2021. Our research described under Stages 2 and 4 above is also complete, is posted on SSRN, and has been submitted for publication review. Specifically, the Stage 2 paper ("Food Bank Donations and Retail Pricing") has received a "revise and resubmit" from Decision Sciences (a top supply chain journal) and should be published in either 2021 or 2022. The manuscript produced pursuant to the objectives in Stage 4 ("Food Bank Donations and Retailer Markups") has been submitted for review at the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and should also be published in either 2021 or 2022. We plan to complete the objectives described in Stage 3 this summer, as the Map the Meal Gap (MMG) and donations data are all in place. We see no constraints to completing our proposed research on time.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Lowrey, J., Richards, T. J., & Hamilton, S. F. (2020). Food Bank Donations and Retail Pricing. Available at SSRN 3743633.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Lowrey, J., Richards, T. J., & Hamilton, S. F. (2020). Food Banks and Retail Markups. Available at SSRN 3743626.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Hamilton, S. F. and T. J. Richards (2020). Theoretical model of retailer pricing, retail inventory, and food bank donations. Working paper, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
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