Technical Assistance is Related to Improvements in the Food Pantry Consumer Nutrition Environment

Abstract

Objective: To assess changes in food pantries' consumer nutrition environment (CNE) after the provision of technical assistance. Design: Pre-post study with 2 phases. Setting: Staff completed observational assessments using the Nutrition Environment Food Pantry Assessment Tool (NEFPAT) at food pantries in an initial pilot phase. Then, staff conducted NEFPATobservations at pantries in Illinois statewide. Participants: In the pilot phase, 6 staff assessed 28 pantries. In the statewide phase, 35 staff assessed 119 pantries. Intervention: After completing an initial NEFPAT at each pantry, technical assistance was provided by staff to support changes in the pantries' CNE before another NEFPATobservation was completed. Main Outcome Measure: Changes in the CNE, as assessed with the NEFPAT, when comparing preassessment and postassessment. Analysis: Score differences were evaluated with paired t tests. Results: In the pilot phase, among 23 pantries with preassessment and postassessment data, 2 objectives on the NEFPAT observation increased significantly. In the statewide phase, among 66 pantries with preassessment and postassessment data, most NEFPAT objectives and the overall NEFPAT score (22.12 § 8.16 vs 28.20 § 7.14, P < 0.001) significantly increased. Conclusions and Implications: Technical assistance provided by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education implementing staff were related to improvements in the CNE of food pantries in Illinois. Future work should evaluate the association of these CNE changes with changes in behavior among pantry patrons.

Development and evaluation of the Food Bank Health and Nutrition Assessment

“…Planning for PSE initiatives, regardless of whether they are lead by Extension or food bank staff can be further supported by Feeding America's Nutrition in Food Banking Toolkit (43) as well as the published case studies of other food banks' efforts to implement changes in practices (36,37) . FB-HANA evaluations and subsequent planning might also support and supplement downstream efforts to assess and improve the consumer nutrition environment in food pantries (22,23) . In a Minnesota sample, food banks comprised an average of 50 % of food pantries' inventories, but this varied from 3 to 99 % in the sample (44) , so complementary efforts in both food banks and food pantries are warranted.…”

“…The FB-HANA development team was composed of five Extension staff who had backgrounds in public health, social work and community nutrition and experience partnering with charitable food distribution organisations to promote nutrition and health. FB-HANA development team members generated an initial list of FB-HANA objectives and related strategies based on a review of food bank policies (five in Illinois and fifteen from other states) as well as adapted strategies from an existing assessment tool for food pantries (22,23) .…”

“…Much of the published work in this area has focused on initiatives in food pantries, as the consumer-facing side of the system. These initiatives have included efforts such as distribution of suggested donation lists (22,23) , coordination with food policy councils (24,25) , developing nutrition-focused policies, transitioning distribution from traditional pre-packaged boxes to client-choice models (22)(23)(24) , incorporating wrap-around social services (24,26) , partnering with the health care system (27) and reorganising how items appear to 'nudge' clients towards healthier items (22)(23)(24)28) , among others (22,23,26) . These initiativesmany of which began within the last decadefocus on making healthier choices easy and accessible (29) and are coupled with established nutrition education programming (30) .…”

The charitable food system as a change agent

“…The combined shifts toward client choice and healthier foods have inspired efforts nationally to redesign pantries to create a more dignified and less stigmatizing experience for clients (29). Recent interventions to the food pantry environment have included technical assistance to food pantry staff and volunteers to provide healthier food (30)(31)(32) and environmental "nudges" to promote behavior change among clients (33). The latter includes behavioral economics strategies, which aim to change behavior through careful choice architecture.…”