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Managing a Surge in Demand: What Food Banks Need to Know Right Now
Federal funding uncertainty could affect SNAP distribution for 42 million Americans beginning November 1. Combined with furloughed federal workers already seeking assistance and holiday-season preparation, food banks face demand from multiple directions at once.
The difference between food banks that maintain service during a surge and those that exhaust capacity often comes down to a single decision: ordering emergency inventory before you think you’ll need it, not after demand spikes.
Surges in demand aren’t new. They occur due to hurricanes, federal government shutdowns, mass local layoffs, economic disruptions, and seasonal spikes. The operational challenges are similar regardless of cause. Here’s what prepared food banks do differently.
Understanding the Surge Challenge
The math is stark. As Craig Rice, CEO of Manna Food Center, explains: “When food banks serve families, it’s usually a 1-to-9 ratio—one meal provided by food banks versus nine provided by SNAP dollars. If those SNAP dollars get cut in half, that would mean that a local food bank quadruples its output just to meet that need.”
The inventory gap: When food bank operations rise to meet the immediate surge, but the supply chain isn’t as dynamic and flexible as the distribution,s the gap grows rapidly. Even with expedited fulfillment, emergency orders require 5 business days to ship. While you can’t always know what level of surge will hit, we recommend maintaining an additional 5-10 days of surge-capacity inventory to bridge this gap.
Three Operational Bottlenecks (and How to Fix Them)
1. Order-to-Delivery Timing & Regional Coordination
Standard lead times are 2-4 weeks. During a surge, you need food faster—5-7 days at most. The problem compounds when everyone orders simultaneously.
In disasters, neighboring food banks coordinate shipments to affected areas. During Hurricane Helene, Kristi Rose from MANNA FoodBank described peer food banks as “ad hoc team members” texting directly: “Here are the items available. Do you want them? Yes or no, I’ll arrange transport.”
In surges, different food banks have varying capacities. One has surplus freezer space, another has warehouse capacity; one excels at senior programs, another has corporate volunteer relationships. Map these complementary strengths before a crisis hits.
What works: Pre-position vendor relationships that guarantee rapid fulfillment AND establish regional capacity-sharing agreements.
2. Volunteer Coordination Under Pressure
Surge brings untrained volunteers when you need maximum efficiency. Bulk sorting with inexperienced teams creates chaos.
Kit-load advantage: Not pre-assembled, but standardized components with clear instructions. Untrained volunteers achieve high throughput quickly without learning your entire inventory system. This transforms volunteer surges from burden to capacity multiplier.
3. Storage vs. Distribution Speed
You can’t store your way out of a surge. Limited space means you need a steady flow: order → receive → distribute in tight cycles.
Mixed truckloads allow smaller, more frequent orders versus full truckload minimums. Order what you need across multiple products, and receive on one truck.
How Should Food Banks Prepare for Surge Events?
Planning Ahead
Review your disaster plan—does it include non-disaster surges? Federal shutdowns require different strategies than hurricanes. Mass layoffs affect communities differently than seasonal spikes do.
Calculate worst-case scenarios. If SNAP is suspended for 30 days in your region, what additional capacity do you need?
Establish vendor relationships built for speed. Not all vendors can maintain rapid fulfillment when everyone orders at once.
Know your risk tolerance before a crisis demands it. When Hurricane Helene hit, Joe McKinney from Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina had the authority to act: “We did it, and we were doing it in large volumes before things even started to look like they would stabilize.” They activated massive purchasing immediately, trusting donations would follow—which they did.
Similarly, Casey Castillo, CEO of the San Diego Food Bank (Jacobs & Cushman), explains their approach to the current federal shutdown: “We’re going to spend half a million dollars in purchasing food and serving these folks if this persists.” They’re prepared to use their rainy-day fund to maintain operations—but that decision was made possible by having a rainy-day fund in the first place and board approval to deploy it.
This decisive action is only possible when boards have pre-established understandings or financial limits for different surge scenarios. Without that pre-crisis conversation, operational leaders can’t act fast when minutes matter.
When Surge Hits
Activate immediately. Don’t wait to see how bad it gets.
Order NOW for delivery within days. Orders placed this week arrive in 5-10 business days. Orders placed after inventory exhaustion arrive too late.
Focus on shelf-stable, multi-use products. Family Staples boxes serve multiple program types as the situation evolves.
Deploy volunteers to distribution first by purchasing pre-boxed inventory to improve efficiency with untrained helpers.
Learning for Next Time
Track what stocked out first, which vendors delivered on time, and which processes worked with volunteers. Update your playbook with real data.
How Food Banks Are Responding Right Now
Demand exploded last week. Food banks around the country ordered dozens of extra truckloads of pre-made boxes by mid-week—much of it needed before Thanksgiving. The pattern mirrors previous surges: organizations that order early, order strategically, and don’t wait for perfect information are the ones maintaining service levels.
During Hurricane Helene, food banks with pre-positioned vendor relationships could secure emergency inventory when minutes mattered. The organizations struggling weren’t less prepared—they were working with vendors whose systems couldn’t flex during simultaneous surge demand.
What separates vendors that can scale from those that can’t:
- Mixed truckload capabilities (flexibility without full FTL minimums)
- Pre-built box inventory (help with speed to distribution and volunteer constraints)
- Regional distribution networks (if one area is impacted, others maintain fulfillment)
- Teams that understand food bank operations (not generic customer service)
VAFS operates exclusively in the nonprofit hunger relief space. Our procurement teams have already ordered replenishments for box builds and mixing center inventory to keep in-stock items rolling—the same surge protocols we activated during COVID and after hurricanes and other disasters.
Three Actions to Consider During This Expected Surge
- Review current inventory against worst-case scenarios. Do you have buffer inventory while emergency orders are in transit?
- Confirm vendor lead times for emergency orders. Standard timelines may not apply when food banks across the country order simultaneously.
- Update partner agencies on potential service changes. Clear communication now prevents confusion later.
Moving Forward
Surge demand capacity is operational resilience. Food banks that serve communities most effectively during crises share common traits: they plan during calm periods, establish relationships before crisis demands them, maintain inventory buffers that create decision-making space, and empower leaders to act decisively within predetermined parameters.
Emergency orders: Contact Us
Surge capacity planning and agency optimization support: Contact Us
For product specifications and resources: Visit valueaddedfoodsales.com
About VAFS: For over 30 years, Value Added Food Sales has worked exclusively with nonprofit hunger relief organizations. With mixing centers across the country and relationships with 110+ manufacturing partners, VAFS provides rapid fulfillment with expedited options for emergency response.