Food Bank Operations during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has a substantial impact on food bank operations. This article aims to provide an overview of the challenges and responses of food banks in Germany. Publicly available data was used and surveys were conducted among 948 food banks, at three time points in 2020. More than half of participating food banks were closed in spring, whereas nearly all were open again in summer. Food banks implemented alternative modes of food distribution and response measures to stay open. However, they seem to be less resilient to challenges like COVID-19, in particular due to their reliance on volunteers.

KEYWORDS:

• Poverty
• food bank
• covid-19

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all “Tafel” food banks that participated in the surveys. In addition, the authors would like to thank Evelin Schulz, Nilab Alokuzay-Kiesinger, and Dr. Kristine Goergen from “Tafel Deutschland” for providing the list of “Tafel” locations and for their assistance in preparing and conducting the surveys.

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft under Grant 2819LE005.