Locality, Personal Ties, and Efficiency in a Food Security Network

Food sharing and distribution organization systems provide critical resources for local communities and food-insecure households. In this article, we investigate a newly collected data set of the Thrive Network in southwestern Virginia, which links forty food security organizations through fifty-one connections, using a theoretical framework of organization science within geographic space. We first test whether more central and higher degree organizations are toward the geographic center of the network, near convenient points of interest. We then measure whether organizations are likely to form connections based on nearness and logistical effectiveness of moving goods, and where this occurs. Finally, we find “missed connections,” defined as sets of organizations that are nearby but highly disconnected in the network. We find that important nodes are not necessarily in the center of the network, but are located on the periphery, and that relatively few organizations are connected to their nearby neighbors. We find that important nodes are not necessarily in the center of the network, but are located on the periphery, and that relatively few organizations are connected to their nearby neighbors. As such, this system could be predicated on bottom-up personal relationships rather than a hub-and-spoke supply chain configuration, and new ties might make the system more effective. We use our findings to help the Thrive Network build a more resilient food-sharing system and better serve vulnerable clients.