Food insecurity and nutrition education: The role of Extension Master Gardeners in providing fresh produce to food pantries

Abstract

The nutritional profile of food pantry inventories has been a challenge to maintain at a higher level. Master Gardener volunteer programs have recently started designing community donation gardens to address the nutritional gaps in food pantry inventory and programming. These programs often claim to serve their communities and to engage many local stakeholders, but it is unclear where, how, and to what extent each stakeholder group is involved and how their involvement shapes programming. To understand the role of community engagement in a master gardener community garden donation program, program, we conducted a qualitative study in which we carried out a document review of data from 32 counties in Iowa served by a statewide Master Gardener program over five years. This review provided data that enabled us to analyze stakeholder participation in program planning. Drawing on the Interactive Model for ProgramPlanning, we assessed stakeholder roles and found that while the program engages many stakeholders, food pantry patron involvement in the planning process was low. Involving patrons in the program planning process is necessary to ensure that program goals and objectives are designed in service to the community the programs exist to serve. Is key to accomplishing both sustainability and efficacy in the effort to make fresh produce more accessible to those facing food insecurity.