Food banks and social impact through the lens of the SDGs: a first systematic literature review

This research aims to study how Food Banks (FBs) and their main activities and operations (i.e., food recovery and distribution) are linked to the topic of social impact (and/or social value), in the literature. Several studies demonstrated that organisations that pursue social and sustainable goals need specific methods and tools to manage their activities and to reach these fundamental nonfinancial goals. Theoretical and empirical documents, selected in this stage on Scopus database, would show generalizable solutions that could improve accountability and increase the significant impact of the FBs in the community and society at large. FBs are an important example of Social Economy Organizations, since they coproduce services for the community, in partnership with public and private entities, that naturally pursue social and sustainable goals. This first analysis aims to identify already published research studies with a special focus on the food recovery and distribution activities performed by FBs, and the impact produced on some identified SDGs, such as No Poverty (SDG 1), Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12) (Berardi, Mook, Rea, 2021). We present here a preliminary stage of our literature review conducted on Scopus, considering the following keywords: food recovery, food distribution, Food Bank, hunger, poverty, waste, health, well-being, security, insecurity, inequality, social impact, social value, effectiveness, outcome. Further developments of this research could be the complete application of the Scoping Review method, using the PRISMA diagram. Scoping reviews are conducted to provide a broad and systematic review of a body of emerging literature. We also could consider other recognised databases such as Web of sciences, Google scholar, etc. Some of these first preliminary results could be useful for identifying the literature gaps on this topic, and possible further development, especially on the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) theories and practices.