Fostering Growth in Food Pantries

I started working at my first food pantry in 2014, and have now managed four different ones. Each pantry in the time I was there doubled their clientele, and two saw a quadrupling in client numbers over 2-3 years.

While I like to believe that the increase in the early days of my career was because I helped these pantries build a reputation for respectful, compassionate, and abundant service, the 2020s increases in pantry visits reflect national trends. Food insecurity numbers remain high, and food justice experts anticipate that they will stay so as we face inflation, an oil crisis, and economic insecurity.

This means that food pantries will likely see increasing visits from new and returning clients. Although many pantries have little control over what or how much food they receive, that doesn’t mean that they still can’t prepare for higher visitor numbers. There are lots of other steps we can take to facilitate the shopping experience as our community needs evolve.

It’s important to remember that efficiency is not the goal of emergency food assistance programs- it’s the comfort, dignity, and accessibility of food assistance. Efficiency is not a component of food justice.

Preparing for growth:

• Evaluate the flow of your pantry. Are there ways to rearrange so that people can travel more naturally through your space? Grocery style pantries who allow shoppers to move freely about the pantry and make their own choices can often serve greater numbers, but they do require trusting and respecting the autonomy of their shoppers.

• What are the limitations for serving more shoppers at once? Is it just the quantity of food, or is it also the check-in system, or number of shopping carts, or a narrow doorway or a bottleneck at the meat freezer? What changes can you make to increase the number of people who can navigate your space at the same time?

It’s easy to convince ourselves that we can’t change our facilities, but there are often little adjustments that can make big differences. Spread out your tables or coolers so there’s more room to go around them, or offer the same food options in multiple locations.

• What is your volunteer capacity? It’s important to consider what pace and responsibilities your volunteers can handle, and not just how many you have. You probably have a volunteer or two who refuses to rush no matter what, which means they may not be an ideal volunteer for managing check-in on a busy day.

Are your volunteers energized and excited about a busy day, or are their attitudes lackluster? Perhaps now is the time to start recruiting and training higher-energy volunteers able to manage busier shopping days. This often starts with the energy and enthusiasm that staff bring to their roles, which brings me to my next point…

• How can you support staff? I know most food pantries don’t have the resources to offer significant raises, but it’s important you recognize that more shoppers means more work. I once had a manager who absolutely refused to acknowledge that our staff was working harder since we were still working the same number of hours, even though we were serving twice as many households in the same amount of time. Guess how many of us still work there?

This field is already prone to burnout, so think ahead about what you can do to keep staff feeling positive and supported. Can you offer extra PTO, be flexible on work hours, or make a genuine effort to listen to staff suggestions of what they need?

• Make it easy for new shoppers, or those who haven’t visited in a while. It’s incredibly intimidating to visit a food pantry, and even more so if you can’t figure out what you need to do. List on your website and on signage outside your doors exactly what information you need from shoppers and how the shopping process works. This will help streamline and simplify your new shopper orientation.

• Coordinate with other local pantries. Prepare resource lists to share with shoppers in case your pantry can’t provide what they need. See if you can alternate dates with other pantries so that there’s always an option in your neighborhood to access food.

Schedule a pizza party or event with staff from other pantries- it’s important to remember they are allies rather than competitors. How can you coordinate to ensure your community members have access to all the nourishment they need?

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

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