IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v117y2023ics0306919223000520.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring the impact of food rescue: A social return on investment analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Clare, Grace
  • Diprose, Gradon
  • Lee, Louise
  • Bremer, Phil
  • Skeaff, Sheila
  • Mirosa, Miranda

Abstract

Food rescue organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand help to reduce food waste and provide temporary relief to food insecurity. However, many of these organisations depend on donations and short-term philanthropic or government funding, which creates financial uncertainty and often requires them to demonstrate the impacts of their work with limited resourcing. While frameworks exist to demonstrate social value and associated monetary proxies like social return on investment (SROI), they are often resource-intensive and challenging to apply to multiple actors with different operating models like food rescue groups. This paper presents a SROI approach to measure the social value of three different food rescue models (Community Hub, Free Store, and Mixed model) in Aotearoa New Zealand. We describe how we adapted the seven guiding principles of SROI to explore how food rescue creates value for different actors in the food rescue process, including food donors, food recipient organisations, food rescue volunteers, and food rescue recipients. We used stakeholder interviews and quantitative data to develop nine primary outcomes. Financial proxy values were assigned to these outcomes, calculating an SROI ratio of NZD 4.5:1, indicating that an investment of $1 in food rescue delivers $4.5 of social value. This study adds to the growing literature on the impact of food rescue organisations and highlights the importance of taking a multi-case study approach to capture the true value created by this sector. Additionally, it emphasises the crucial role of food rescue organisations as ‘community connectors’ and their transformative potential in addressing food security issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Clare, Grace & Diprose, Gradon & Lee, Louise & Bremer, Phil & Skeaff, Sheila & Mirosa, Miranda, 2023. "Measuring the impact of food rescue: A social return on investment analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:117:y:2023:i:c:s0306919223000520
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102454
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919223000520
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102454?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gargani, John, 2017. "The leap from ROI to SROI: Farther than expected?," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 116-126.
    2. Jessica Mannette, 2021. "The Multiple and Changing Values of Rescued Food: Case Study of a Food Security Initiative in Urban New Zealand," Research in Economic Anthropology, in: Infrastructure, Morality, Food and Clothing, and New Developments in Latin America, volume 41, pages 117-134, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Belinda Luke & Jo Barraket & Robyn Eversole, 2013. "Measurement as legitimacy versus legitimacy of measures," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(3/4), pages 234-258, November.
    4. Graham Riches, 2011. "Thinking and acting outside the charitable food box: hunger and the right to food in rich societies," Development in Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4-5), pages 768-775, June.
    5. Matthew Hall & Yuval Millo, 2018. "Choosing an Accounting Method to Explain Public Policy: Social Return on Investment and UK Non-profit Sector Policy," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 339-361, March.
    6. Luigi Corvo & Lavinia Pastore & Marco Mastrodascio & Denita Cepiku, 2022. "The social return on investment model: a systematic literature review," Meditari Accountancy Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(7), pages 49-86, March.
    7. Michelle Farr & Peter Cressey, 2019. "The social impact of advice during disability welfare reform: from social return on investment to evidencing public value through realism and complexity," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 238-263, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Muhammet Usak & Ming Yuan Hsieh & Yung-Kuan Chan, 2021. "A Concretizing Research on Making Higher-Education Sustainability Count," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Yates, Brian T., 2021. "Toward collaborative cost-inclusive evaluation: Adaptations and transformations for evaluators and economists," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Graeme Harrison & Lu Jiao & Jinhua Chen, 2022. "Performance measurement systems and client performance in fee‐generating not‐for‐profit human service organisations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 931-957, March.
    4. Ngarava, Saul & Mushunje, Abbyssinia & Chaminuka, Petronella, 2020. "Qualitative benefits of livestock development programmes. Evidence from the Kaonafatso ya Dikgomo (KyD) Scheme in South Africa," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. kartikaputri, arella, 2020. "Pentingnya Social Return on Investment," OSF Preprints 4rv9a, Center for Open Science.
    6. Cavicchi, Caterina & Vagnoni, Emidia, 2023. "Digital information systems in support of accountability: The case of a welfare provision non-governmental organisation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    7. Francesco Basset, 2023. "The Evaluation of Social Farming through Social Return on Investment: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, February.
    8. kartikaputri, arella, 2020. "Pentingnya Social Return on Investment (SROI)," OSF Preprints y9ntg, Center for Open Science.
    9. Luca Papi & Riccardo Ievoli & Giorgia Gobbo & Enrico Deidda Gagliardo & Lamberto Manzoli, 2021. "Performance governance per la generazione di Valore Pubblico in sanit?. Evidenze empiriche dalle aziende sanitarie dell?Emilia-Romagna," MECOSAN, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(117), pages 27-58.
    10. Camille Hochedez & Émilie Lanciano & Julien Noel & Séverine Saleilles, 2022. "Transition to the test of food justice : construction of a repertoire of practices in 5 initiatives in Angers, Lyon and Poitiers [La transition à l'épreuve de la justice alimentaire : construction ," Post-Print halshs-03930423, HAL.
    11. José Pablo Abeal Vázquez & Pilar Tirado-Valencia & Mercedes Ruiz-Lozano, 2021. "The Impact and Value of a Tourism Product: A Hybrid Sustainability Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    12. Samal, Parshuram & Mondal, Biswajit & Jambhulkar, Nitiprasad Namdeorao & Verma, Ramlakhan & Das, Anup Kumar & Singh, Onkar Nath, 2023. "Evaluation of crop research institutes under data and resource constraints: An alternative approach," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    13. Mercedes Ruiz-Lozano & Pilar Tirado-Valencia & Antonio Sianes & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Vicente Fernández-Rodríguez & Mª Carmen López-Martín, 2020. "SROI Methodology for Public Administration Decisions about Financing with Social Criteria. A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, February.
    14. O’Leary, Susan & Smith, David, 2020. "Moments of resistance: An internally persuasive view of performance and impact reports in non-governmental organizations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    15. King, Julian, 2021. "Expanding theory-based evaluation: Incorporating value creation in a theory of change," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:117:y:2023:i:c:s0306919223000520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.