Assessment of public facilities for hot meal production after disasters

Disasters are unpredictable events, both in nature and location, that cause significant material and emotional losses when they occur, making ordinary life difficult to control. The chaotic environment that emerges after disasters makes it difficult to meet basic living needs, prioritizing the need for nutrition over other vital services. Earthquakes, floods, fires, and similar events can disrupt the food supply chain, restrict access to clean water, and pose a serious challenge to accessing nutritious, safe food. In this process, services such as emergency food distribution, hot meal production, and reliable water supply require comprehensive planning and coordination. To meet needs quickly and safely in potential disasters, the effective use of existing infrastructure, such as communal feeding areas, school and dormitory cafeterias, is preferred. Determining the availability of these areas in advance is crucial for meeting nutritional needs quickly and sustainably. Literature reviews reveal that hot meal production areas in many provinces face problems such as storage, hygiene, workforce, and physical infrastructure deficiencies. This study was designed to rank the usability of hot food production areas in the central district of Sivas province, based on criteria determined by expert opinions. Criterion weights were calculated using the MCDM methods BWM and CRITIC, and alternatives were then evaluated using the TOPSIS method. The findings indicate that capacity-focused priorities prevail in analyses based on expert opinions, while infrastructure-focused priorities prevail in analyses based on objective data. This demonstrates that different weighting approaches can lead to different outcomes for the same problem. This proactive approach is anticipated to contribute to rapid and effective humanitarian relief operations in the post-disaster period.