Abstract

BEJARANO RONCANCIO, Jhon Jairo  and  BECERRA GRANADOS, Luis Miguel. Standardising the assistance food packages in the Food Bank Foundation at Archdiocese of Bogota´s. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2011, vol.59, suppl.1, pp.13-20. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. The foodbank's purpose since 2001 has been to recover fresh and manufactured products from large-scale chain-stores and industries, thereby avoiding that they become wasted and managing to ensure that they end up on the tables of the institutions helping the poorest sectors in Bogotá. Objective. Standardising the nutritional composition and content of food assistance packages supplied by the foodbank for member foundations, according to nutritional context and needs. Materials and methods. This was a descriptive study which was organised into three phases. The programming, billing and despatching involved in organising donations to the institutions were observed, recorded and analysed by using a time and motion study. Data was documented on a SWOT matrix (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Administrative and technical characteristics were studied as well as the foundations' need for acquiring food assistance packages. This information was entered into two databases and a proposal was prepared and validated based on donations and internal classification, age group's epidemiological characteristics and coverage, type of attention and the number of exchanges per time regarding food supplied. Results. Systematised software was prepared which captured the information concerning standardised requisition according to food package needs per foundation, time being regarded as a factor; the process thus became optimised by 59%. Conclusions. The food packages being delivered by FBAA were not focused on the target population's real needs from a nutritional point of view, morbid characteristics and the foundations' production dynamics. Such handling led to losses in human, technical and financial resources.

Keywords : food planning; food security; food storage; reference standards; nutrition programs.

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