Optimization of Allocation in Food Banks: An Approach Using Extended Goal Programming

Food insecurity affects millions of people worldwide and is worsened by economic, health, and climate crises. At the same time, large amounts of food still suitable for consumption are discarded daily. In this context, food banks play a fundamental role by collecting, storing, and distributing surplus food to social institutions. However, the absence of adequate computational tools makes the management and allocation process manual and non-optimized. Moreover, there is a lack of studies addressing this reality through the lens of mathematical models applied to the Brazilian context. Therefore, this work proposes an extended Goal Programming model aimed at planning the equitable distribution of food, considering multiple food banks. The model was tested under different operational scenarios and showed satisfactory results, highlighting its practical applicability and efficiency in contexts of scarcity and resource redistribution.