Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the need for food assistance in the United States has increased 60 percent while a third of the nation’s food banks have closed their doors.

Even as demand has soared at food banks, farmers have struggled to sell their produce as the restaurant industry took a tremendous hit. With surpluses on one side and scarcity on the other, the nation is facing a growing food gap that is hurting both farmers and those in need.

The problem inspired a unique partnership between the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business, the University of Wisconsin, and Arizona State University, with input from corporate partners Google and Ryder. Funded by a private grant, the Food Supply Chain Coalition is a nationwide effort to fight hunger by optimizing supply chains.

Second-year students in UT’s Tri-Continent Master of Science in Supply Chain Management program participated in the project, each tackling a specific piece in a many-sided puzzle with the overarching goal of solving real-world problems in the food supply chain.

You can read the whole story on UT’s Business and Economy news page at: https://news.utk.edu/2021/04/15/food-supply-chain-coalition-takes-aim-at-hunger/