Accountability and Relationship-Definition Among Food Banks Partnerships
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Accountability and Relationship-Definition Among Food Banks Partnerships Marla A. Parker1
•
Laurie Mook2 • Chen-Yu Kao3 • Alex Murdock4
Ó The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Food pantries typically operate in a partnership structure where they are primarily supported by a larger food bank. However, the ability to execute that mission through cooperative arrangements greatly depends upon accountability, a key dynamic that ensures partners are fulfilling expectations and key roles. This exploratory study utilizes qualitative interview data (n = 61) from a large food bank network to understand the extent to which a lead agency (i.e., a large food bank) meets expectations of accountability among partners. The interview results demonstrate that the extent to which expectations are met relate to different types of relationships between the lead agency and partner members. Furthermore, the ways in which partners assess the strengths or weaknesses of the food bank’s accountability reveal different types of relationships within the network, namely that of supplier– customer, supporter–customer, and supporter–collaborator.
& Marla A. Parker [email protected] Laurie Mook [email protected] Chen-Yu Kao [email protected] Alex Murdock [email protected] 1
Department of Political Science, California State UniversityLos Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
2
School of Community Resources and Development, Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA
3
Center for Organization Research and Design, Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA
4
London South Bank University, London, UK
Keywords Accountability Network relationships Collaboration Partnership Food banks
Introduction As food insecurity rates increase and transcend low-income socioeconomic boundaries, food banks and pantries are being called upon to play a more prominent role in addressing issues of hunger (Curtis and McClellan 1995; Bazerghi et al. 2016). These organizations have been the subject of increased research interest not just in the USA but also in Europe (Baglioni et al. 2017; Gonza´lez-Torre et al. 2017). They find themselves faced with nearly unprecedented circumstances emerging from constrained economic conditions resulting in increased poverty rates and associated outcomes such as poor health, educational attainment, and social stability (Berner et al. 2008). Rapidly expanding client demand and strains on capacity leading to running out of food are but a few of the critical challenges facing food banks (Paynter and Berner 2014). As such, food insecurity easily lends itself to being classified as a wicked problem and thus benefits from being addressed collaboratively by organizations to increase capacity and address the ancillary issues (Weber and Khademian 2008). Collaborative approaches have become increasingly common to provide comprehensive and efficient public value—particularly in times when resources such as funding may be scarce or threatened (Gardner and Director 2011; Weber and Khademian 2008). Indeed, food pantries generally operate in a p
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