Food Pantries Fighting Hanger: Bring Snacks!

Have you ever been hangry?

A combination of hungry and angry, hangry is the perfect term for the short temper and dysregulation that accompanies the stress of hunger. I am the ultimate hangry person. When I get too hungry, my tolerance level for everything drops, and I essentially check out until I get some food. My friends and family know that once I’ve hit hangry, we’re not going to get anything done until the situation is rectified.

I know I’m not alone. Hangry is an increasingly popular term because it captures the peevishness that grows alongside hunger. We all know that no one is their best self when they are hangry.

This especially goes for food pantry clients and people facing food insecurity. Hunger amplifies stress, which can be further sparked when facing the indignities that can accompany seeking out food assistance.

Every food pantry I’ve worked at regularly served people who hadn’t eaten in too long. Whether they didn’t have an easy way to travel to the pantry or postponed their visit for as long as possible, it was not unusual to serve clients who hadn’t eaten in twelve hours or more. (I’ll never forget serving a young man at one of my first food pantries who hadn’t eaten in two days. That level of hunger and stress brings enormous urgency to everyone at the pantry.)

Asking someone feeling hangry to wait in a slow-moving line, fill out a tedious intake form, and pay attention to a boring orientation on pantry rules is a big and unfair ask.

Interactions between clients and volunteers can be tense. Volunteers are trying to adhere to the policies they’ve been taught as efficiently as possible, potentially without awareness of the other issues clients might be experiencing.

Clients are often trying to get in and out quickly with as much dignity as possible, which can run contrary to the systems volunteers seek to enforce.

Imposing strict rules on people dealing with hunger, stress, and other challenges can make these interactions harder.

Food pantries and meal sites all experience their fair share of challenging interactions. Our shoppers come with complex stories and high stress that can amplify triggers. But there are few scenarios where getting someone the food they need doesn’t make it better.

How can pantries do better at meeting clients’ immediate needs?

• Provide snacks or small bites, like granola bars or an apple, at check in. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but the opportunity for someone to eat before heading into what is regularly a stressful situation can alleviate some of the anxiety. It also helps build a more welcoming atmosphere.

• Allow people to eat in the pantry. This doesn’t mean you have to let people assemble a meal right then and there, but snacking while shopping should be welcomed! Snacking at one of my previous pantries made a big difference in keeping children calm and quiet, which enabled their guardians to enjoy a more relaxed shopping experience and alleviate everyone’s stress.

It’s not too much to ask people to clean up after themselves, and your pantry should already have several waste bins distributed throughout the room. While you may still have to clean up an occasional mess, it should be preferable to escalating unnecessary conflict.

• Teach volunteers to check for clients who might need extra support. Even if you don’t have enough snacks for everyone, having something available when necessary can make an enormous impact. I can’t count the number of times where my pantry saw an escalating situation, but getting our shopper a granola bar and a juice box immediately relieved the tension. Also, recognize the emotional labor that goes into diffusing these difficult situations.

• Food pantries often serve high numbers of people with specific nutritional requirements. Being equipped to support someone with low blood sugar with emergency snacks should be an expectation rather than an aspiration of all anti-hunger organizations.

• Model healthy self-care by ensuring that staff and volunteers also get breaks for snacks and lunch. I once worked at a pantry where I rarely got a lunch break, and it was often my volunteers who pointed out that I needed to eat when my mood started to go south. Modeling self-care helps ensure that everyone is better-prepared and more thoughtful about supporting our neighbors through the next challenge that arises.

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I often see pantries seeking to develop a more efficient, professional atmosphere through increasingly strict rules and official looking paperwork. It’s these same pantries who experience increased conflict by placing unreasonable and inflexible expectations on their community.

Food pantries strongly benefit from a friendly, casual attitude over formality. It is entirely possible to develop a professional, respectful food pantry that has best practices for supporting their clients rather than asserting their authority. Offering snacks is a great first step.

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

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