SCM20003 Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Tutoring 1 (Individual task): You are required to write a report to Sustainability Victoria which is established under the Sustainability Victoria Act 2005 with the vision of achieving ‘A sustainable, thriving Victoria’.

Report Title: Resolving food waste problem and the burning issue of hunger in Australia through innovative supply chain initiatives: Addressing UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)

Your Aim: Your report should provide a detailed, evidenced-based plan for Sustainable Victoria to take some actions to tackle food waste problem through innovative supply chain initiatives and channel food that would otherwise go to waste, to feed hungry people. Your report needs to highlight the importance of addressing United Nation’s, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Marks Allocated: 25% (please refer to marking rubric to find out how marks are allocated to different sections)

Food waste in Australia

According to the Department of the Environment and Energy of Australia website, “Food waste (http://www.environment.gov.au/protection/national-waste-policy/food-waste) is estimated to cost the Australian economy around $20 billion each year. Australian consumers throw away around 3.1 million tonnes of edible food a year. Another 2.2 million tonnes is disposed by the commercial and industrial sector. The complexities of dealing with food waste means that an integrated approach is needed. There are also substantial opportunities to rethink how food waste can be prevented, or wasted food can be used for other purposes.

To help address this important issue, the Australian Government committed in 2016 to develop a National Food Waste Strategy and to deliver a National Food Waste Summit. The strategy establishes a framework to support actions that work towards halving Australia’s food waste by 2030. This ambitious goal aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 for sustainable consumption and production patterns.

There are already a number of activities in Australia to reduce our food waste. These include consumer education, investment in waste treatment infrastructure, waste diversion from the retail and commercial sector, food collection for redistribution, and research into high value uses for food waste”

Are there really hungry people in Australia?

(https://www.foodbank.org.au/hunger-in-australia/the-facts/) (Source: Foodbank Australia)

“Yes there are. Hunger is a hidden crisis in Australia, with over 3.6 million people experiencing food insecurity at some point every year, 27% of which are children. In fact, the demand for food relief is rising, with charities reporting a 10% increase in demand last year.

It is also a common misconception that only homeless people require food relief. However, the main recipients of food relief are individuals and families who have generally low incomes or are unemployed, not just those who are homeless. The face of hunger in Australia is diverse – it affects males, females, children, the elderly, single people and families, students, employed, unemployed and retired people. High risk groups include people with disabilities, refugees and Indigenous Australians. Some of the common reasons why people find themselves seeking food relief include a lack of funds to pay rent and bills, and unexpected expenses such as car repairs or medical bills”.

Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated this issue and a large number of people are seeking support of food relief. To quote from FooBank hunger report 2020;

“Three in five Australians experiencing food insecurity (61%) have accessed food relief since the advent of COVID-19. Despite many food insecure Australians being in urgent need of help, 39% have not accessed food relief during the pandemic. The most common barriers to seeking assistance include thinking there might be other people more in need (33%), embarrassment (33%) and shame (30%)”

“Charities have seen a significant increase in the demand for food relief. In 2019, 15% of Australians experiencing food insecurity were seeking food relief at least once a week. In 2020, this has more than doubled to 31%. Although charities are seeing demand for food relief become more erratic and unpredictable, overall numbers are up by an average of 47%”

The facts on hunger in Australia:

3.6  mil people report having experienced food insecurity in the last year 652,000 people receive food relief from Foodbank agencies, every month 27% of those are children (216,000)

65,000 people are turned away every month because of food shortages (14,600 of these are children)

The demand for food relief is rising, irrespective of national economic growth. Last year saw an increase of 10% in the number of people seeking food relief. It seems that the issue is not about insufficient food supply. Even though adequate excess food is made available through donations, getting these supplies delivered to needy people is a huge problem.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)

UN sets 17 SDG goals to transform the world. According to UN webpage, “SDGs are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection”.

The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform our world: GOAL 1: No Poverty

GOAL 2: Zero Hunger

GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being GOAL 4: Quality Education

GOAL 5: Gender Equality

GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality

GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production GOAL 13: Climate Action

GOAL 14: Life Below Water GOAL 15: Life on Land

GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal

Step 1: Conduct an academic literature review focusing on how food waste problem can be mitigated by creating innovative supply chain solutions.

Step 2: Find out from your literature review methods employed by other countries to effectively distribute excess food to needy people to alleviate their hunger.

Step 3: Describe what UN sustainable development goals can be achieved through this effort.

Step 5: Write the Report to ‘Sustainability Victoria’

Your report could be structured as follows (this is just an example. You can create your own report structure as appropriate):

1. Executive summary
2. Introduction
3. Literature review
   1. Introduction
   2. The context of food waste and hunger problem in Australia
   3. A review of the logistics and supply chain solutions applied in other countries to address food waste problem. (Here, you need to provide a review of best practices of logistics and supply chain solutions aimed to address food waste problem as reported in academic literature)
   4. A review of current logistics arrangements used by major food relief organisations in Australia (e.g. FOODBANK). Explain strengths and weaknesses of their current
   5. Highlight the problems attributable to the drawbacks of logistics and supply chain
4. Plan of action for Sustainability Victoria (here you need to explain what Sustainability Victoria should do based on your findings). You could explain long terms, medium term and short-term Other main recommendations. Explain what SDG goals could be addressed through your recommendations. Your recommendations must be derived from your literature review.
5. Conclusions
6. References

Appendices