Month: December 2023

How to Build a Friendly Environment in Any Food Pantry

Last week I was privileged to take a tour of a local food pantry that is part of a relatively new and rapidly growing program. As a result, the food pantry has bounced around in several different physical spaces as office needs have evolved and rooms became available. The current space was the smallest grocery-style food pantry I’ve ever seen.

Approximately 12 x 12 feet, this pantry had room for three standing fridge/freezers, a wall of shelves for canned goods, and counter space for displaying fresh produce. Pantry policy is to check in clients at the door and allow up to three shoppers to browse the space at once. To facilitate this, the organization has prioritized establishing a play area with volunteer supervision for the children of clients. Parents are thus able to shop at their leisure, and the pantry doesn’t have to navigate extra bodies in the room. It is an efficient and elegant system, despite all the disadvantages that come with a room barely bigger than a closet.

There are very few food pantries who occupy their ideal facility. Instead, they live in basement rooms, neglected offices, and vacant closets. Having to depend on unwanted and undesirable spaces can be challenging and discouraging, but there are still ample opportunities for organizations to make their services as respectful, desirable, and functional as in a purpose-built facility.

Here are three essential qualities for turning any food pantry space into one that is dignified and functional for everyone:

  • Abundance. Whether the pantry is a tiny closet or a cavernous warehouse, keeping the shelves piled high with food fosters an abundance mindset that provides a sense of security and comfort to people seeking assistance.

When people are confident that they have access to essential resources, they are more likely to just take what they need. When they are fearful that there isn’t enough (and especially if there’s any sense of competition among shoppers), they are more likely to fall into a scarcity mindset which often motivates them to take more food.  A smaller room facilitates the presentation of abundance, but attention to how food is displayed can simulate a sense of plenty in any space.

No one wants to be at a food pantry in the first place, so developing systems that empower shoppers to make their own choices can help address the inherent power imbalance in using emergency food resources.

Grocery-style pantries that allow their visitors to browse as one would do at any store are an effective way to add dignity to the experience. Many food pantries continue to depend on systems where clients must proceed in a line past their food options. While this system is primarily successful at increasing the speed at which people shop, it also can evoke a sense of powerlessness. Letting shoppers get out of line or step ahead of a slow shopper may be a simple option for restoring a little bit of autonomy.

While every food pantry deserves a big, beautiful room with airy windows, a play area, and ease of access for everyone, we must work with the options available. By considering these factors, we can still transform any space into an experience that helps our community feel welcome, nourished, and dignified.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

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Quality is Just as Important as Quantity in Food Pantries

My food pantry often receives donations of food from other organizations that are unable to distribute it for a variety of reasons. Recently, staff from one of these pantries stopped by with a donation as I was loading up a cart of butter. Several of the cases had been crushed, and butter was oozing out of the packaging. It was a mess, and the ruined boxes were inappropriate and unsafe for anyone to eat. I quickly sorted through them and tossed them in the garbage without a second thought.

The staff from this other pantry watched me do this with horror. “You’re just throwing it out? Can we take it? I can’t believe you threw it out!”

This request was an uncomfortable surprise. As the packages were clearly damaged and leaky, they were not safe to distribute according to food banking guidelines. I did not let them take the butter.

This incident makes me reflect on the bigger question of what exactly our two food pantries are trying to accomplish, and how we use wildly different strategies to pursue those goals.

For many years, the traditional food pantry model has operated under the idea that quantity of food distributed is the primary measure of success. Pounds given away is the easiest metric available, and combined with the attitude that people should be “grateful for what they get,” has produced a culture that encourages and rewards the process of giving as much food away as possible, prioritizing quantity over quality. This results in food pantries eager to share ruined packages of butter with their clients.

Luckily, the food banking industry is slowly transitioning towards a focus on dignity, which challenges the assumption that quantity trumps quality.  This requires anti-hunger organizations to consider the quality of the food they are distributing and how it impacts the people who eat it instead of focusing on our need to give it away.

In many cases, this means throwing out food that you might salvage in your own kitchen, but is inappropriate for a food pantry.

This dichotomy is why I am wary about conversations celebrating the reduction of food waste by donating to food pantries. It perpetuates the idea that it’s okay for people experiencing hunger to eat food that should be thrown away.

Food banks and pantries depend on these donations, but we must be incredibly careful about how we frame these discussions.

If an onion has a little mold on it, it’s quite easy to cut and peel the bad spot off and use the rest. However, no one has ever left a food pantry with a moldy onion and felt excited, respected, or supported. Volunteers and leadership may baulk at the idea of throwing the onion out, citing fears that clients won’t have enough food. A single onion will never make-or-break someone’s food security. But when we make a habit of distributing food of poor quality; slimy lettuce, mushy bruised pears, and packs of butter that look like they were run over by a truck, then we are hurting food security and obstructing food justice. Quantity can never overcome poor quality when it comes to food.

When our goal is to distribute as much food as possible, we fail to offer the support our community really needs while also disrespecting our shoppers.

As hunger needs rise, food pantries must prioritize increasing our food supply. But when that is our only measure of success, it focuses entirely on our side of this transaction.

Saving food from the garbage and giving away as much as possible looks great to donors, volunteers, and supporters, but it entirely disregards the needs of our shoppers.

When food pantries make empathy our primary focus, examining what it’s like to receive our own food options can be transformative. We will always need to prioritize seeking more resources, finding new donors, and building a stronger food supply (until we solve the root causes of hunger). But if we don’t intentionally and deliberately examine what food we are distributing and why, food pantries can lose track of our common goal to ensure that everyone has the food they need to thrive.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

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The Problem is Never Just Hunger

“I just need food- I didn’t know I had to fill out any paperwork!” This woman’s vehement opposition to completing our food pantry’s new client intake form took me by surprise, which increased as she abruptly strode off with tears running down her face. I’d never had this happen before.

I followed her into the parking lot, and after some hesitant discussion, it became clear that she was a survivor of domestic violence. This woman was terrified at the prospect of any documentation that might enable her ex to find her. Respecting that fear, we did not record her visit, and ensured that she and her two children got the food they needed to survive a couple more days.

Nearly three years ago, this incident remains lodged in my memory as an early catalyst for my food pantry’s transition to practicing trauma-informed care, with the recognition that no one comes to our organization facing hunger as their only challenge.

Hunger was only one obstacle among many for this woman as she struggled to access the resources she needed while keeping her family safe.  Even though our mission is to meet the nutritional needs of our community, it is essential that anti-hunger organizations always recognize our visitors carry many other burdens when they walk through our doors, whether they share them with us or not.

This is why it is so important for every food justice advocate to deliberately plan, script, and implement strategies that focus on compassion and respect, and not just food access. This can help transform the process of seeking emergency food assistance from one of panic and humiliation to one of dignity and empowerment.

Every day, our food pantry welcomes people who are houseless, who have recently arrived from nations ripped apart by war, are facing imminent financial emergencies, or are experiencing a mental health crisis. Food pantry clients are never just facing food insecurity, but there is ample opportunity for us to provide support beyond just food.

Here’s how food pantries can build environments that support all their shoppers and the backgrounds they bring:

  • Trauma-informed training for staff, leadership, and volunteers. Recognizing and respecting the trauma that people carry helps us develop systems to support them. Foster systems that accommodate those needs, such as ignoring the administrative responsibilities for the woman escaping a violent ex or packing a personalized food box for an individual who is overstimulated by the crowd and long line.
  • De-escalation training. We serve clients who arrive stressed and emotionally charged every day, and it requires tact and sensitivity to help them find stability. For example, we occasionally encounter clients who haven’t eaten for several days. Finding them a snack and a bottle of water before they shop is often the most effective way to set them up for success shopping in the pantry.
  • Focus on an attitude of abundance. Even if food supplies are running low, a sense of abundance helps shoppers feel more food secure and supported. When our food pantry line grows especially long, people worry that we won’t have enough food for everyone. Reassuring them helps quell anxieties before they even get inside.
  • Wrap-around services. Although we don’t provide additional programming, we network with health clinics, organizations that deliver food, free clothing, and housing assistance so we can direct clients in the right direction. We partner with several nursing-student programs who have provided us with meal planning projects, recipe development, and other resources. This semester our students have developed information on wound care to share with our clients who are living outside. Although we rarely have exactly the resources our shoppers need, being able to point them in the right direction can save them from the overwhelming fear of solving these challenges alone.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

Want to learn more about food justice? Subscribe so you never miss a post! Look for one email in your inbox every Monday morning.