NC State Researchers Build Tool to Speed Food Rescue Deliveries

A food-rescue route can change before the first stop is complete. A volunteer misses a shift, a household is only available for a narrow window, or a pickup adds more food than the day’s plan can absorb. NC State researchers say they have built a tool for that kind of uncertainty, and it is already built into an app.

Leila Hajibabai, an associate professor in NC State’s Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Ph.D. student Mehr Salami developed the framework with a regional food bank after collecting data on drivers, vehicles, food availability and household demand. The system assigns deliveries at the start of the day, then updates routes as new information comes in. NC State said the paper was published April 29 in Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering.

The researchers also designed the framework to forecast additional demand, so a driver can add deliveries or head back to the warehouse when needed. They tested it against three benchmark methods. The practical aim is straightforward: keep food moving with fewer wasted miles and fewer missed deliveries, even when the workday does not go according to plan.

That kind of flexibility is familiar to A Simple Gesture, which has operated in Guilford County since 2015. Founded by Jonathan Trivers, the organization built its model around doorstep donations and customized recovery from grocery stores, restaurants, caterers, corporate cafeterias and other sources. Its food-recovery program says it works with more than 35 vetted nonprofits in Guilford County, uses weekday volunteer drivers, and asks volunteers to have a smartphone and a clean personal car. The group says rescued food is delivered the same day and documented with records generated by Careit.

For an operation like that, route software is not a luxury. It is a way to keep volunteer schedules, pickup windows and warehouse turnaround from colliding. When the morning route changes, coordinators need backup plans that do not burn gas or leave food sitting. A system that can reassign stops as the day unfolds gives staff one more way to stretch the same volunteer pool and the same budget.

The need is large enough to make that efficiency matter. Feeding America estimates North Carolina had 1,627,360 food-insecure people in 2023, a 15.0% rate, with an annual food budget shortfall of $1.08 billion. USDA estimates 13.7% of U.S. households were food insecure in 2024, including 5.4% with very low food security. For food banks and neighborhood recovery programs, dispatch has become frontline work, and better routing can mean more households served without adding another truck or another shift.