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Adapting Nonprofit Resources to New Social Demands: The Food Banks in Spain

Author

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  • Jorge Coque

    (Department of Business Administration, University of Oviedo, Wifredo Ricart Street, Gijón E33203, Spain)

  • Pilar L. González-Torre

    (Department of Business Administration, University of Oviedo, Wifredo Ricart Street, Gijón E33203, Spain)

Abstract

Food banks make up an increasing phenomenon of nonprofit organizations answering to new social needs related to the global socioeconomic crisis. In order to explore if they are suitably adapting to their environments in Spain, one of the countries most seriously affected by the crisis in South Europe, this work assumes a hybrid qualitative–quantitative structure composed of an exploratory case study based on semi-structured interviews followed by a survey addressed to all the Spanish food banks. Much of the academic literature has concerned the appropriateness of food banks as a delivery mechanism in the context of welfare state withdrawal. This paper takes this in a different direction by examining Spanish food banks from an organizational management point of view. Wary of concerns about the institutionalization of food charity, on the one hand, and recognizing the escalating daily reliance on food banks, on the other, this paper seeks to address potential technical supply problems and challenges food banks face and open debate about the organizational networks of food banks more generally. The results show nonprofit entities based on a voluntary workforce who run supply chains in order to join both social and business targets. Their situation, performance, resources, mutual relationships and the links with other entities are described, paying special attention to the changes induced by the latest contextual changes. In short, food banks are efficiently organized and well established in their territories as a coherent social movement, although they should improve in their strategic view, coordination, resources and sources of these, to satisfy more adequately their increasingly complex demands.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge Coque & Pilar L. González-Torre, 2017. "Adapting Nonprofit Resources to New Social Demands: The Food Banks in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-16, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:4:p:643-:d:96185
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Paulien Dekkinga & Hilje Horst & Thirza Andriessen, 2022. "“Too big to fail”: the resilience and entrenchment of food aid through food banks in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(3), pages 781-789, June.
    3. Sttefanie Yenitza Escobar-López & Santiago Amaya-Corchuelo & Angélica Espinoza-Ortega, 2021. "Alternative Food Networks: Perceptions in Short Food Supply Chains in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Kaur, Milan Preet & Smith, Safron & Pazour, Jennifer A. & Duque Schumacher, Ana, 2022. "Optimization of volunteer task assignments to improve volunteer retention and nonprofit organizational performance," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Richard Philip Lee & Pamela Louise Graham & Emma Croft & Katie L Hackett, 2023. "Food bank practices, local development and the potential of community wealth building and universal basic services in the UK," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(1), pages 22-41, February.

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