Meike Reusken
Pieter Nijman
Logistics under the microscope Every week, some 150,000 people can turn to one of the Dutch food banks. How can all the food distributed there be delivered to its destination in the most e fficient way possible?
Text: Laura Bergshoef Photos: Bram Belloni
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ith his phone in his hand and folders under his arm, Pieter Nijman quickly walks into the cafeteria of the food bank and distribution center in Tilburg. “Sorry I’m late,” he says. “I just had to rescue a sea container full of mackerel. They were about to be destroyed, due to regulations, but the fish themselves are in fine condition. Isn’t 20 | New Scientist | Special Zero Hunger Lab
that bizarre? I just put in a quick call. If it works out, every food bank customer will soon have a fish.” Food waste and food shortage are important issues for Nijman. For some two and a half years, he has been a board member of the logistics department of the Association of Dutch Food Banks. In the Netherlands, more than one million people live below the poverty line. People who cannot afford groceries temporarily receive a supplemental food package once a week. How does that work? And what could be improved?
Bottlenecks “The logistics behind the food banks is very complex,” Nijman says. The food banks get their food from such sources as businesses, supermarkets, and fundraisers. That food is first distributed to ten distribution centers. From there, it goes to 171 food banks, and most food banks have multiple distribution points. There, some 150,000 customers pick up a food package once a week. “We want to distribute all the food, which is often fresh, as fairly as possible among various customers throughout the
