MODELING AND SIMULATION OF FOOD BANK DISASTER RELIEF OPERATIONS

Food banks obtain in-kind donations (i.e., supplies) from individual donors, and from public and private organizations. The amount of supplies required to support distributing agencies is very dynamic, especially after natural disasters when food banks become major players in the disaster relief efforts. Therefore, planning for the operation of food banks under both, normal and disaster relief conditions, is a challenging problem. In this paper, a discrete-event simulation model is developed to represent the operations of a network of food banks at the supply chain level. The model is used to investigate the impact of multiple disaster relief operational policies (i.e., supply prepositioning, distribution center assignment) in the distribution of supplies and in meeting the demand. The model simulates the flow of donations at three food bank facilities and the demand for supplies of 55 demand locations before and after a natural disaster. The value of the simulation is demonstrated through the analysis of multiple scenarios. The results show that there is a 48% increase in the overall demand fulfillment rate if food banks operate as an integrated network with supply prepositioning and demand splitting between operating facilities.