Military Food Supply Chain during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, disrupted international trade and changed the global food supply chain. Disruptions affected all food supply chains, including those critical to national security. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to reveal the impact of the pandemic on the military food supply chain in Poland. In the analysed single case study, we used process mapping to show the diversity of the types of military food supply chains operating in military units. The attention was focused on the internal and external food supply chains in the context of the disruptions and dysfunctions that appeared in the sphere of management. The contribution of the article is twofold. First, we used a situational crisis management approach to isolate four types of internal military food supply chains. Practical guidance concerns showing actions influencing the modification of system solutions in the military sphere in peacetime in connection with the pandemic. As a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Poland applies system solutions similar to those in place in other allied countries. The results of our research can be used as recommendations for solving problems in the military food supply chain in other countries within NATO.