Local co-production and food insecurity: leveraging institutional advantages of partner organisations

Across the developed world food insecurity has become a growing problem, including in contemporary Japan. A common response to food insecurity has been the development of food banks typically run by voluntary associations often in partnership with public agencies and private firms. Considerable ingenuity exists in the Japanese food bank sector that can inform public policymaking in addressing the problem of food insecurity. Adopting the conceptual prism offered by the co-production literature, we study three food banks: Second Harvest Nagoya, Food Bank Iwate and Food Bank Kanagawa. While the modus operandi employed by the three food banks differs considerably, a common thread underpinning their success resides in the fact that they all combine the comparative institutional advantages of their collaborating partner organisations in the local public and the private sector.