Feeding America: Left Behind by Capitalism but Saved by a Market?

Feeding America, based in Chicago, was a nonprofit that acted as a central clearinghouse for large donations of surplus products from food manufacturers, grocery stores, government agencies, and farmers, allocating the donations to 200 food pantries across the nation. However, Feeding America's slow, centralized allocation process to get truckloads of donations to food pantries across the nation often failed to match the needs of the pantries' communities. One food pantry manager in Idaho complained he got a truckload of potatoes when he already had a warehouse full. Another was stocked with pancake mix but no syrup. Misallocations such as these resulted in expired products and, ultimately, meant less food was delivered to the families who really needed it. The inefficient system also resulted in Feeding America being cautious about accepting donations that could spoil before the food could be assigned to a food bank. One proposed solution would work like eBay, in which donations would be posted on a technology platform. Each food bank could check online to see what was available and use their allocated 'shares' to decide what to buy and how much to pay. Yet food bank managers were unconvinced. How would the shares be distributed? How would Feeding America deal with uneven supply? Could the system backfire?