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Hunger and food insecurity are present in each American county. Government and non-government organizations are working to address food insecurity in the United States. Food banks are nonprofit hunger relief organizations that collect food and monetary donations from donors and distribute food to local agencies which serve people in need. Contributions come from retail donors, communities, and food manufacturers. The uncertainty of donation amounts and frequency is a challenge for food banks in the fight against hunger. In this research, we analyze local food bank donation data and propose a predictive model to forecast the contribution of different donors. Our study shows the necessary behavioral attributes to classify donors and the best way to cluster donor data to improve the prediction model. We also compare the accuracy of prediction for different conventional forecasting techniques with the proposed Support Vector Regression (SVR) model.
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This content will become publicly available on July 31, 2026
Understanding Neighbor Food Needs and Preferences through an Interactive Dashboard
Food insecurity is a social and economic condition where an individual or household have difficulty to obtain safe and nutritious food. Food insecurity in America is a serious issue given that more than 30 million people in America are food insecure. The complex nature of the problem cannot be address by federal nutrition assistance programs alone. Non-profit hunger relief organizations also play a significant role. Feeding America is the nation’s largest hunger relief organization and has over 200 affiliated food banks. Those food banks used to focus on providing emergency food assistance, more and more are paying more attention to the needs and preferences of the people they serve and provide culturally relevant food and food that meets the dietary and other health considerations. Working with a local food bank and its affiliated partner agencies, neighbor preference data were collected. An interactive dashboard was developed to allow decision-makers of the food bank to make evidence-based informed decisions in complex hunger relief operations such as food procurement and distribution.
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- PAR ID:
- 10616524
- Editor(s):
- Leitner, Christine; Bassano, Clara; Satterfield, Debra
- Publisher / Repository:
- AHFE International
- Date Published:
- Volume:
- 182
- ISSN:
- 978-1-964867-58-8
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 203-207
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Food insecurity, Needs and preference, Neighbor, Interactive dashboard
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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