A knapsack optimization model for food basket during Covid-19 lockdown: A case study in Taman Semarak Tawau Available to Purchase

The Malaysian government has implemented various strategies to break the chain of COVID-19 in the society, such as the implementation of enhanced movement control order (EMCO) in the red areas. To support the implementation of the government’s strategy, food distribution to all families in the affected areas must be provided. In this paper, we demonstrate how the binary knapsack model can be utilized to help a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Tawau selects the food items to be filled in the food basket with maximum budget of RM100. A binary integer programming model that maximize the total weight of the food basket is developed and solved using Lingo 12.0. Two models were developed; i) the first model was developed solely based on the budget restriction, ii) the second model add in special condition as proposed by the NGO team. The first model produces optimal solution where the NGO team can prepare a basket of 31 kilograms with total cost of RM93. On the other hand, the second model provide a food basket with a higher cost of RM98 but the total weight remain unchanged. The knapsack approach used in this study may be useful for other organizations in decision making for item selection.