Exploring Fundamental Causes of Food Waste and Direct Donations through Analyzing Existing Solutions and Discrete Event Simulations

Abstract

Food Loss and Waste (FLW), colloquially termed food waste, represents a significant problem in the United States. Despite substantial investments in technical and organizational solutions for waste in the different stages of the Food Supply Chain (FSC), the problem persists. This paper explores existing organizations that have impacted a significant portion of the FSC and other solutions that have been limited in scale to identify key elements of mass adoption. A Discrete Event Simulation modeling Direct Donations -a novel method of donating edible FLW directly to the person in need- explores how its combination with food banks may allow donations, instead of composting or landfills, to become the default use case for edible FLW.

Keywords: Food Waste, Information Flow, Resource Allocation, Supply and Demand, Optimization, Food Donation, Food Banks