Integrated Social Accounting for Food Banks. First evidence from a comparative study

Most of the literature on food banks is related to the US and Canadian contexts, while European food banks are less studied. No past studies in the literature take an international comparative perspective of social accounting and accountability of food banks, and how some internal and external factors affect their reporting systems, and stakeholder engagement. New rules and new international trends in accountability are considered in this study, for instance, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are sometimes used in social and sustainable accounting. This paper presents first evidence from a multiple case study of food bank organizations from different countries, starting from the Italian and the US context. Organizations studied are well-resourced large food bank distribution centers providing support for mission delivery of other food providers, that operate like partner agencies —i.e. food pantries, churches, other nonprofit organizations. We aim to analyze how some factors impact their social accounting systems. A comparative case study, with mixed methods of data collection and analysis, is developed. Data are collected from several sources: annual reports, financial statements, form 990, GuideStar database, strategic plans, and institutional websites. For analyzing these data, we refer to the four dimensions of the Integrated Social Accounting Model, and we use the UN SDGs 2030 as a framework. The perception of the management team and key stakeholder groups (volunteers, employees, partner agencies, foundations, donors, clients, etc.) could be analyzed through specific surveys and further focus groups. The first results of this study demonstrate that some factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, new accounting regulations, etc., could affect the social accounting and the accountability systems of the food banks, and for this way the stakeholder perception of the achievement of organizational results.