Civic and public · strategy stress test

A food hub, a mobile route, or vouchers

A county has one grant to improve food access in a neighborhood with no full grocery store. A regional chain is deciding whether to open there. What does the county fund?

A fixed hub is the easiest thing to build and the easiest thing for a private store to be crowded out by. Vouchers only work if there is a store to spend them in. The chain reads what the county does before it commits.

You (county human services) versus The regional grocery chain. Payoffs are modeled, not measured.

Your opening moves

• Fund a fixed pantry hub. One central site with set hours.
• Fund a mobile pantry route. A truck on a weekly loop through the neighborhood.
• Fund grocery vouchers with delivery. Vouchers redeemable at any local store, with delivery for households without a car.

The assumption you control

Share of households in the neighborhood without a car. The rehearsal shows the value at which the best opening move changes. Twist: The council forbids volume guarantees to private firms.

Concepts at work: Public Goods Game, Bargaining Game. See the glossary and all rehearsals.