Investigating Determinant Factors of Food Bank Operators’ Satisfaction

Abstract

Food banks attract growing concern as a countermeasure to tackle food loss and deepening poverty issues among urban children. However, full scale research is still scarce. Thus, this study investigated operators’ satisfaction and its determinant factors using a nationwide web-based questionnaire survey. We received 60 responses and employed a binary logit model and co-occurrence network analysis. The results revealed that those with stable food suppliers and partnerships with local municipalities, and located in east Japan had higher satisfaction levels. Meanwhile, those providing food to individuals had lower satisfaction as doing so required more time and labor. Further, many food banks face financial difficulties because most are non-profit organizations (NPOs) with weak financial bases. Thus, securing partnerships with the public sector will be necessary.