Category: Client Dignity

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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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.

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No One Needs to Be Grateful For Food

“They should just be grateful for what they get!”

If you spend enough time around food pantries, you will inevitably hear this comment. Most often, it’s a default response to an individual in need expressing any level of discomfort, asking for accommodation of a dietary need, or even just pointing out a spot of mold on a loaf of bread. Anything that can be perceived as criticism of emergency food services is often interpreted as a lack of gratitude, and subsequently condemned. 

While the practice of gratitude can be healthy and fulfilling, demanding it at a food pantry is neither. 

Gratitude cannot be required. That’s why it is a beautiful and powerful emotion- it must be voluntarily fostered and practiced. 

Demanding that someone experiencing food insecurity be grateful for otherwise discarded food is the ultimate assertion of dominance. 

There is an enormous power differential between team members and clients at food pantries. Staff and volunteers determine what type and how much food clients can get. We grant or deny access to foods that reaffirm their culture, traditions, and health. We choose when and how rules are enforced, and we determine what behaviors can strip someone of the privilege of receiving food altogether.

Emergency food access programs have a long history of seeking to control behavior. Work requirements, drug testing, and other policies embody the assumption that hunger results from poor decision making. This reasoning is used to justify strict programs limiting individual choice. Knowing that food is necessary for survival, it’s a powerful way to assert authority and mandate specific behaviors (even though they’re not found to have much effect). Somehow, the idea persists that demanding gratitude from a person in need can also be a tool to help them succeed.

We all need food to live. The question of “who deserves to eat?” is essentially synonymous with “who deserves to live?”

Every person deserves a healthy, nourished life.

Even though there are an abundance of barriers preventing access to the foods people need to lead that healthy life, they still deserve it unconditionally.

Most of the foods that food pantries distribute have already been rejected by someone else. Cans may be dented, some items are expired, and many of the fresh options are nearing the end of their lifespan. Even the most dignified organizations depend upon reframing the reality that most of their food is salvaged from food waste. 

It’s incredibly gratifying when a food pantry client leaves the building with tears in their eyes, effusively gushing about the impact that the food pantry had on their life and the gratitude in their heart. Everyone feels good after that kind of encounter.

But it’s essential to remember that a food pantry has just as powerful an impact on the client who is angry that they need a food pantry at all, who is frustrated from a day of enduring microaggressions, who is resentful of the cheerful person who arrived in a shiny BMW telling them they can’t have an extra can of green beans. This individual is just as deserving of food as anyone else, and food pantries need to ensure that they have systems and practices that do not allow this client to be treated with anything other than respect and dignity.

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

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Ending Hunger: Why You Should Break Down the Greatest Barriers First

Food banks and pantries do essential work. Hunger is a dominant and growing problem in our country, and having the capacity to provide a family with several days’ worth of food makes a huge difference. But it is essential to recognize that the emergency food assistance program, and the systems we’ve built around it, are merely a band-aid. We cannot solve hunger by handing out free food because the conditions that perpetuate hunger have nothing to do with food.

Especially since the surge of racial justice protests of 2020, there has been greater public discussion, although still inadequate, of how inequality is engrained into our daily life.

Anti-hunger organizations and individuals are beginning to acknowledge that hunger is caused by systems of oppression that deny people access to the resources they need.

We live in a world where access to resources and opportunity to thrive are heavily determined by race, gender, sexual identity, and ability, among many other forms of discrimination.

Certain identities face greater barriers than others in finding affordable housing, living wages, accessible healthcare, and communities where they feel safe and welcome. Denial of any of these conditions makes it harder for people to access, afford, purchase, and prepare the food they need to thrive. The higher risk of hunger for demographics who experience greater rates of oppression clearly demonstrates how it is a systemic, and not an individual, problem.

To effectively address hunger, it’s important for anti-hunger advocates to learn who faces greater barriers to food access both out in the world and in their own organization.

As an example, my food pantry has a distinctly religious logo. Even though it has been many years since we were affiliated with a church, it’s impossible to tell that we aren’t a faith-based organization. In the past three years, I’ve heard from multiple LGBTQIA+ clients that they were initially hesitant to use our services due to fear of the attitudes they might encounter and a history of hate from religious institutions.

LGBTQIA+ individuals have experienced hostility, poorer service, or even violence when seeking social services from religious-based charities. It has only been through a very slow process of establishing our reputation as an inclusive space that we’ve seen an increase in our LGBTQIA+ clientele, since changing the logo is not an option. Although this evidence is anecdotal, it’s clear that fear of discrimination is a significant barrier to food access for many in my community.

Before I began deliberately welcoming LGBTQIA+ individuals to our pantry, it would have been easy to assume that this demographic didn’t need our services since they weren’t coming. Without considering why people aren’t utilizing our resources, we may completely ignore the needs of the community.

Fighting discrimination is hard but if we really want to end hunger, we must address oppression. 

It is inadequate for emergency food assistance programs to just offer food. While pantries are an essential service, and one I passionately believe in, providing food to those who come for it only overcomes the smallest barriers. If we aspire to make food justice a priority, it is imperative that food pantries tackle the big problems. This means honestly evaluating what systems are keeping the most vulnerable communities away from our resources, and how our efforts may contribute to those barriers.

Here are three questions for food pantries to examine the potential barriers they may reinforce:

1. What is the makeup of the leadership, staff, and volunteer base?

A homogenous group both looks unwelcoming to others, but also means that your decision-making lacks diversity. If your pantry team is of all the same cultural background, you are unlikely to prioritize foods that you are unfamiliar with, even if they are important for the communities you serve. If there is no one who speaks the language on the team, it’s harder for those clients to even learn about services, let alone utilize them. If there’s no one with lived experience of hunger guiding decision-making, it’s easy to implement policies based on assumption rather than reality.

2. What’s the culture of the pantry?

Are clients monitored for their behavior or choices as they shop? It’s highly probable that implicit bias plays a role in how clients are supervised. The more rules your program implements, the more opportunities there are to enforce them unequally. This is why I advocate for as few rules as possible, and is why my pantry does not require our shoppers to move along a specific pathway. We have more traffic jams, but we don’t manufacture opportunities for people to do something wrong. This is also one reason why I oppose setting limits on how much food people can take.

3. Do they practice trauma-informed care?

People visiting a food pantry never just face hunger. On top of the challenges of paying rent, buying their children new shoes, and maintaining their prescriptions, it’s likely they’re also enduring racial harassment, sexual violence, or ableist discrimination. If your organization is knowledgeable and empathetic to these burdens, your shoppers are more likely to feel respected and welcomed. If you prioritize just giving everyone food, you ensure these clients feel silenced and invisible.

By deliberately evaluating how your pantry can overcome the barriers faced by our most vulnerable populations, we make food more accessible for everyone. If we really intend to end hunger, then we have no excuse for ignoring the communities with the highest needs.

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

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No One Knows What I Should Eat Better Than Me

As someone with an autoimmune disorder, at the beginning of the pandemic I was one of the individuals warned to be extra careful about exposure. To reduce my risk, I initially tried utilizing a grocery delivery service.

Although it was convenient to not make the physical trip to the store, I was quickly frustrated by the choices that my shoppers made, even when I could not have articulated my preferences beforehand. I had envisioned getting a slightly smaller onion. I wouldn’t have picked the lettuce with the wilted spot on the edge. Almond flour was not an acceptable substitute for cassava flour.

Having the power to make our own food choices is important. Not only does it allow me to eat what my body wants and culture practices, but also offers empowerment. Allowing someone else determine our food choices feels infantilizing and undignified.

               The emergency food assistance system has long fostered the attitude that people experiencing hunger do so through their own failures, and need an authority to guide them in the right direction which justifies denying them choice in the matter.

For many years anti-hunger programs have offered very few opportunities to people experiencing hunger to select their own foods, or labeled individuals “ungrateful,” if they dared make special requests.

In traditional food pantries, opportunities for individuals to make their own choices can be severely limited. Food pantries are dependent on donations, and rarely have all the options that a family needs. Most also utilize systems that limit what and how much families can take, which means the ability to make decisions based on individual wants is significantly curtailed.

While I passionately believe that food pantries are powerful tools for implementing food justice, it’s important to call out these weaknesses so that we can begin to build better and more equitable systems.

We can do better (and many programs do!)

Food justice requires honoring the needs of every individual. This can only be accomplished by ensuring everyone has the power to choose their own foods. We all know our own needs best, and having the autonomy to make those decisions brings empowerment and dignity to our relationship with food.

It is inadequate for food assistance programs to provide food without allowing choice.

What programs allow people experiencing hunger make their own food choices?

-Grocery model pantries. This style of food pantry allows clients to make their own selections of what foods they want, and an increasing number allow clients to take the quantities they need as well. Although food pantry options will always be limited by their inventory which depends upon donations, this model provides people experiencing hunger with an experience as close to a grocery store as possible.

-Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP provides dollars for families to make their own food purchases with few restrictions, and are one of the most effective ways to ensure people have access to foods that work for them. SNAP generally can’t be used on hot foods or dining out, but give families essential resources for making their own choices about what they need in the grocery store.

–Double Up Food Bucks. This program matches SNAP dollars (generally up to $10) spent at farmers markets, providing shoppers with $20 to spend on fresh produce. This is a fantastic and growing program, as it makes farmers’ markets significantly more accessible to people with limited funds for food. Farmers’ markets are known for offering high quality but expensive produce that is often out of reach for low-income individuals. Available in 27 states, this program empowers participants to support their local farmers while increasing their power of choice and quality of food available.

I’m sure there are more programs that do incredible jobs of increasing choice and access- please feel free to share!

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

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Find the Right Balance Between Healthy and Comfort Foods

Recently, while doing a quick walk around our food pantry perimeter after we closed, I saw one of our clients sitting in her car eating a box of four chocolate-covered strawberries. I imagine that she is a mom who was about to head home for an evening of family and responsibilities, and it makes me happy to see that she got a break, however brief, to enjoy a fancy treat all to herself. 

American society identifies hard work as the key to success, which means our culture is eager to vilify people living in poverty as lazy, entitled, and unmotivated. I’m sure there are some who would condemn this mom for taking a break, eating unhealthily, or not sharing her family.

In our food pantry, we recognize that food is just as important as a tool for self-care as it is a vehicle for nourishment. For some, cooking an elaborate healthy meal helps them feel nourished and competent, while other people find comfort in a bag of potato chips or cookies. We all have these habits and traditions, but it is primarily low-income individuals who are berated for careless eating or lack of cooking skills. This is one reason we see such aggressive advocacy for policies that limit access to unhealthy foods for low-income individuals.

Beyond the fact that we know ignorance is rarely the root cause of these choices, the focus on nutrition neglects the reality that food is a powerful tool for self-care. In the same way that I like to treat myself to a little bit of chocolate with my morning cup of coffee, or my partner finds joy in a bowl of fresh popcorn in the evening, food is a powerful way that humans take care of ourselves.

When I was at my sickest and unable to eat my normal diet, I learned just how much I use food to manage my mental and emotional health. It was agony to no longer be able to drink my normal cup of black tea, and abstain from the flaky fresh biscuits my coworker taught me how to make. 

While it is essential that we continue to emphasize and facilitate access to healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables for everyone, it’s also important that we not ignore the value of foods that we use for our mental and emotional sustenance.

In food pantries, shoppers are regularly limited in their access and choices. They are forced to make decisions about what foods they need the most, and what they can go without for another week.

More and more anti-hunger organizations are working to develop nutritional and donation policies that more closely manage the types of food that they accept and distribute. While fighting to increase client access to fresh fruits and vegetables should absolutely be a priority, it’s also important for these policies to appreciate the value of offering other options rather than eliminating them altogether.

For an individual who is stressed and worried, finding a bag of potato chips for their kids at the food pantry may help them relax, knowing they can both feed their family and also help their kids feel like kids, with all the same options their neighbors and friends have.

It is challenging to establish a balance between healthy and comfort foods, but this is exactly what food banks and pantries should aspire to do.

Our food pantry places fresh produce front and center and has been working hard to increase our supply so that clients can really celebrate in our abundance. But we also work hard to make sure that our shoppers feel good about all their options, and don’t feel like they are being limited or judged even if the fresh options don’t work for them.

How can we balance healthy and comfort foods in food pantries?

  1. Fresh produce is prominently displayed in the center of the pantry lobby, but we also offer potato chips and sweets as they are available through the donation stream. We have them mostly displayed at checkout (much like at a grocery store,) where they are grabbed last minute as people exit the building. For families anxious about their food supply, their carts are often already full and topping them off with some bonus treats feels welcoming, appropriate, and responsible.
  2. We are vocal about letting our clients know that we want them to take what they need and offer no judgement. Whether they leave with a shopping cart brimming with collard greens or bags stuffed with flaming hot Cheetos, we work hard to educate our volunteers not to comment or judge the food choices of others. No one should be ever be shamed by their food choices, but especially not in a food pantry where there is already so much trauma and emotion present in the experience.
  3. We celebrate when our clients find the food that they need. Volunteers know that we are here to help our community, and someone leaving with a shopping cart full with food (that they themselves chose) is exactly why we do this work. Ultimately, we want our neighbors to have the foods they need to thrive, and we recognize that they are the sole best judge of those needs. By offering as many healthy options as we can alongside foods that provide emotional comfort and joy, we have options that ensure everyone who visits us feels welcome and nourished.

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

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Do People Work Less When They’re Food Secure?

“I might not see you again,” one client solemnly informed me the other day at our food pantry.

This sounds foreboding, but it’s a statement I hear somewhat regularly, and is cause for celebration. This shopper was telling me about his new job and how he hoped once he got his first paycheck, he might not need our food pantry services any longer.

One of the main concerns that people often voice about food pantries and emergency food assistance is that providing aid disincentivizes hard work. There’s an assumption that receiving any help facilitates laziness and exploitation (based on the faulty belief that poverty is a personal choice rather than systemic failure).

In my experience, this couldn’t be further from the truth.  My clients proudly tell me how long they managed to go without visiting a food pantry, whether it was weeks or months. They share with excitement when a household member gets a raise or a new job that empowers them to visit less or stop coming altogether. I hear gratitude for our services, but real enthusiasm in their voices at the prospect of no longer utilizing our help.

Food assistance has never been, and will never be, a disincentive to work.

Although the cost of food is ridiculously high, the other costs of living like healthcare and housing mandate that people have a source of income even when food is easily available. Providing food assistance does not encourage anyone to be lazy.

Why does this idea persist?

One of my regular clients works nights in the warehouse for a certain online global retailer, and they often come to the pantry after their shift and take a nap while waiting in line before we open. Sleeping at 9am in front of the food pantry may look lazy to some, which is why it’s so important we check all our biases at the door.

Food pantries tend to have awkward hours, based on the availability of volunteers rather than the times people experiencing hunger need access to food. Because volunteers are predominantly retirees, this may mean pantry hours are better suited to serving people who are un- or underemployed than full-time workers. My own pantry is open weekdays from 10am-2pm, which are legitimately difficult hours for someone working a full-time job, especially when you consider the long line that sometimes has clients waiting for up to an hour. Because of this scheduling challenge, pantries may self-select a clientele that is not working full time or a traditional work schedule, which can reinforce community biases that our services enable laziness.

Why Food Assistance Doesn’t Disincentivize Work:

Our food pantry will never have all the essentials for someone to comfortably feed themselves without doing their own shopping.

Pantries rarely have things like spices to make a meal taste good, and we’re chronically low on staples such as cooking oil, salt, and coffee. There are very few opportunities for a food pantry to completely free its’ clients from buying any food. Almost all food pantry clients must spend some money on food to make their diet palatable and healthy.

Even if our food pantry had exceptionally good food options, the high cost of living in our area demands other sources of income.

The Portland-Metro area has astronomically high housing costs, which means even people with full-time jobs may not be able to afford food after they’ve paid their rent and utility bills.

After food, the number one request for resources we get is for housing assistance. And tragically, options are limited. There’s often little I can do for a worried family besides making sure that they have as much food as I can give them. There is no scenario where I give them so much food that they can reduce their hours or quit their job.

If you, my reader, make enough money to cover your basic needs, why do you keep trying to do better?

My guess is you have goals, both monetary and professional, that you hope to achieve, and you know they require hard work, time, and dedication. Why does society think people who use food assistance are any different from you?  

Many of the assumptions we carry about people experiencing hunger are based on the premise that people living in poverty are fundamentally different- in their goals, their version of success, and the pathways they take to get there. While it’s important to appreciate the diversity of visions within our community, this concept of fundamental differences is used to justify the idea that our own success stems from hard work rather than systemic advantages.

Understanding and eradicating hunger starts with recognizing that people experiencing hunger want all the same things anyone does- safe, comfortable housing, delicious, nutritious meals, a healthy work-life balance, and the opportunity to treat themselves every once in a while. Calling out the myth that food assistance facilitates laziness helps us advance the real work to ending hunger- ensuring everyone has access to the same advantages and wins.

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

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Don’t Let Your Heart Write Anti-Hunger Policy

Hunger is an emotional subject. Any human who feels compassion and empathy should feel discomfort at the idea of another person going hungry. Unfortunately, the passion it carries also results in the development of policies fueled by this emotion rather than data and evidence.

American society has internalized assumptions about who is hungry and who deserves assistance, and too often these biases result in weak or ineffective policies that respond to feelings rather than reality. We see this prioritization of emotion over data at all levels, from local to federal policy.

Food pantries implement limits on food items so that no one can take too much, based on the assumption that people are greedy, selfish, and don’t know their own needs best. SNAP benefits have work requirements, reflecting the idea that people living in poverty are lazy and won’t work unless forced to. Anti-hunger resources for seniors and children far outweigh those for working adults, based on the idea that some populations have the power to extricate themselves from hunger while others are helpless against it.

These policies tell us far more about our own assumptions than they address the reality of the problem.

Although food banks and anti-hunger organizations are growing increasingly sophisticated in their advocacy efforts and focus on the root causes of hunger, and can utilize data to back it up, not all organizations have the capacity or access to the same level of expertise.

Food pantries often lack staff or volunteers with experience working with data, which means even if they collect relevant information, they may not fully understand what it means or how to use it to advance their efforts.

This is a huge opportunity lost, because as the implementers of on-the-ground anti-hunger efforts, food pantries have some of the greatest opportunities to influence how well their community eats.

As recipients of both federal and state funding and other donated resources, food pantries are obligated to collect a certain amount of information from the people they serve, including age, declarations that they meet income eligibility requirements, as well as recording how much food they distribute. Additional information collected varies based on country or state, coalition membership, and the pantry’s own interest in data.

Here are three things food pantries can prove immediately with the data they already collect:

Hunger rates are predictable.

Every year, our pantry sees a significant increase in clients from September through December. Without fail, the summer slump ends the moment school starts, peaks in November before Thanksgiving, and finally begins to slow down mid-January. Anti-hunger organizations should not be surprised to see these fluctuations throughout the year, and should plan accordingly. Rising inflation clearly correlates this year with increasing food insecurity. We have no excuse to be surprised by the increasing need, yet too many organizations are shocked and overwhelmed at the demand every holiday season.

This graph shows my pantry’s total client visits since April, 2022 (when we reopened as a grocery-style model). The jump in March, 2023, is due to the expiration of pandemic-era SNAP benefits. Using past trends, this graph makes predictions for the numbers we’ll receive this winter. (I’ll keep you updated on how accurately this plays out!)

Food pantry clients work.

Most food pantry households have at least one member who is employed. Although our society is eager to assume that people utilizing welfare seek to exploit the system, the employment status of pantry clients proves otherwise. Food pantry clients are eager for work, but they regularly struggle to access well-paying jobs (as non-food pantry clients also must recognize). Surveys and anecdotal evidence can quickly disprove the myth that people use food pantries to avoid employment.

People don’t take food they don’t need.

Everyone knows what foods they need to thrive. Recognizing this, there is increasing popularity in the grocery-style food pantry model, which allows clients to select the items they want rather than receive a prepacked selection. The implementation of this system has demonstrated that shoppers know what foods they will and will not use. Clients rarely take everything that is offered because they don’t want to take what they won’t use, contrary to popular assumptions. Assessing what foods people take and in what amounts provides ample evidence that clients know their own needs best and are not taking food they won’t eat.

This is only a short list of the assumptions that food pantries can dispel through data. With a commitment to evidence and interest in continuing education on the part of leadership, food pantries can use the information they already have to create effective, powerful policies that empower their shoppers rather than play out their biases.

The only way that we can effectively reduce hunger in our communities is through the development of policies that are based on reality rather than the assumptions in our gut.

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

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Does Everyone Need to Eat Fresh Vegetables?

I began my career in food justice by teaching healthy eating in low-income, rural communities. The goal was to teach elementary school students the basics of nutrition and the value of fresh produce to improve their future diets. What I learned, however, was that these kids were already excited to eat healthy.

Some children had never eaten a fresh vegetable before, and they were absolutely enthralled with the magic of harvesting a radish and crunching into it with dirt still clinging to the sides.

It became clear that improving their diet was a problem of access rather than education. The local grocery store carried an incredibly limited supply of wilted and spoiled produce, and none of their families could afford the fuel to drive to the next nearest store, thirty miles north. No matter what I did with their enthusiasm, there wasn’t much I could do to access more healthy foods.

One of the most solidly cemented assumptions in our society is that people living in poverty don’t care about what they eat. The fact that many individuals depend on convenience stores and cheap snacks is taken as an indicator that they don’t know any better. Higher rates of diet-related disease are seen as confirmation of this assumption.

What I see in our food pantry is that shoppers are passionate about fresh and healthy foods. 

Our produce cooler is the most difficult to keep full, and we can always find a home for its contents whether they be banana leaves, acorn squash, or jalapenos. We know green cabbage days are the ones we have to work the hardest and fastest because demand is so high. Salad greens are one of the most requested items we have, even though we rarely have dressing. Shoppers are often excited to cook with a vegetable they’ve never tried before.

Our food pantry clients all know the basics of a healthy diet but share with us every day how fresh and healthy options are inaccessible to them. Many don’t have easy access to a grocery store, so they depend on convenience stores or gas stations for their meals.

Others are in living situations without the capacity for food preparation or storage. Using only a hot plate or sharing a communal fridge severely limits what foods they can use. And a high number of our shoppers are overwhelmed with caregiving responsibilities (paid and unpaid) that limit their time and capacity for cooking.

Although food pantries can supply our community with healthy, fresh options, we can’t improve their cooking capacity or give them the time to cook for their families. No matter what delicious produce we have, some of our visitors still can’t utilize it.

I worry to see a pantry client walk out our door with only a partially full grocery bag. It is important that everyone feels a sense of abundance and leave confident that they have the food they need to survive. That’s why our pantry strives to offer a variety of different foods, including things like instant meals, frozen dishes, and lots of snacks alongside our fresh produce. We aspire to provide options for everyone, and always assume that our shoppers know their own needs best.

We also recognize the hardship that our clients experience daily. One client recently lost yet another job (the third since I’ve known them). Another client was desperately seeking Narcan for a household member at risk of opioid abuse. Someone just found out they are unexpectedly pregnant with twins.

Everyone comes to our pantry with a complex story, and we believe it’s important to ensure they have foods that bring them comfort as well as nourishment. Food plays a huge role in mental as well as physical health.

It’s not unusual to see a frazzled individual eating a pastry or candy in their car after shopping our pantry, so that their family never knows they got to enjoy a sweet treat in solitude.

Although emergency food assistance programs need to continue seeking pathways to improve the diet and nutrition of people experiencing hunger, it’s extremely important that we view this challenge holistically. While prioritizing fresh fruits and vegetables is an important step, we need to fight the stigma that people don’t know how to eat healthy and instead make sure they have the tools to really do so.

 Frozen fruit is only functional if you have a freezer. Cooking butternut squash requires a hefty knife and the physical capacity to cut it. Dry beans need the time and space to appropriately soak and prepare.

Over the last decade, food banks and pantries have made incredible progress in improving the quality of foods distributed. More fresh items are available than ever before. But the stigma remains that people experiencing hunger don’t know any better than to eat junk food, which ignores the significance of the many other burdens that keep a nutritious diet inaccessible.

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

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Why Don’t We Trust Food Pantry Clients?

“Do you see how much food that woman took? That’s so much food. What do you think she’s going to do with it all?”

I recently had a volunteer quietly ask this in my ear as we watched a woman and her daughter walk out of our food pantry with a shopping cart brimming with heads of lettuce, an assortment of fresh fruit, bell peppers, bags of dry beans, potato chips, and a variety of other foods.

“I think she’s going to eat it,” is my dry reply. “Hopefully that’s enough to support her family for the week.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t a rare question. It’s practically engrained in our culture that anyone who uses welfare is viewed with skepticism.

The idea that hard work always begets success is so engrained into our national psyche that people who aren’t successful are assumed to be so because they make bad choices. And if they make bad choices, can they really be trusted to choose their own food?

Whenever I participate in discussions on the realities of hunger, I hear people invent stories vilifying food pantry shoppers based on the amount of food they take (or the car they drive, the language they speak, or their level of gratitude, but those are topics for another post). Perhaps the clients are just hoarders, but maybe they’re selling it?

Even though abuse of the emergency food system is incredibly rare, a pervasive suspicion of individuals who use welfare means that people simply trying to feed their families are regularly labeled as greedy, exploitive, or lazy.

How did we get here?

The 1970s saw the first food pantries emerge alongside the attitude that short-term catastrophic events, rather than poverty, pushed people into food insecurity. It was assumed that the impacts of a job loss, illness, or natural disaster were only temporary, so immediate food resources rather than reliability or volume were the appropriate solution. The offering of several days’ worth of food was considered adequate until individuals were able to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and regain self-sufficiency.

Economic prosperity also fostered the idea that it was always possible to work your way out of poverty. Food pantries were created to support people through these temporary crises and were never intended as a solution for chronic hunger.

The 1980-90s and the mythical “welfare queen” fostered a tightening of food assistance programs out of fear that they bred dependency rather than independence. Reagan’s emphasis on welfare abuse and Clinton’s policies tightening access to Food Stamps cemented in America’s mind the idea that welfare recipients are always suspect.

Increasingly in the past decades, more and more Americans require regular support accessing food. Particularly since the Great Recession in 2008, families are dependent on food pantries as a regular resource rather than a temporary boost. Low wages and high costs of living mean that people can rarely work themselves out of poverty and are always short of the resources they need to survive.

Hunger is increasingly a chronic experience in the U.S., and millions of people regularly find themselves in situations where they never have enough money to buy food, even when they participate in other food access programs.

Despite this barrier, there’s remains widespread fear that if food pantries provide someone with all they need, this security will push them to quit working, buy lots of drugs, and eat lobster every day.

Through this lens of suspicion, food pantries justify limiting clients to enough food for only several days at a time.

What is our goal?

We know food pantries can’t solve hunger- a systemic problem of this size requires a systemic solution of equal scale. But what food pantries can do is alleviate some of the immediate burdens of living in poverty.

Nearly all food pantry clients have some kind of income- but they must choose whether to spend it on food, rent, healthcare, or other essential needs.

 Institutions committed to building food security should aspire to reduce the amount of money that their clients spend on food. Limiting the amount of food that clients can get at the pantry to a 2–3-day supply (generally considered the industry standard) ensures that shoppers still must make hard choices about where to spend their money. Their only other option is to visit multiple food pantries until they have enough food that they’re able to eat and pay the rent or purchase their medications.

While recognizing that even the most abundant, generous food pantries are only a band-aid to a much bigger problem, they are an essential resource for ensuring all our neighbors eat every day.

When we allow these services to be dominated by bias and assumption, they create a less dignified and less effective experience, and perpetuate the struggles of people living in poverty.

If the end goal is to ensure that everyone in our community has the food they need to thrive, then we need to start by ensuring that resources like food pantries offer their services with respect and understanding of the realities of food insecurity. And that begins by trusting the people who seek our help. If we believe that everyone deserves to eat, then we need to make sure we practice that ideal to the fullest.

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

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Why You Should Run Your Food Pantry Like a Restaurant

Imagine walking into your favorite restaurant. You know the staff is going to be kind and friendly. You are anticipating what foods you’re likely to enjoy, and you’re confident that it will be served safe and clean. You leave feeling nourished, pampered, and fulfilled.

Although they differ in many ways from a restaurant, food pantries should aspire to imbue their visitors with the same feelings. How your guests are welcomed impacts how they feel about their entire experience. A clean environment with reliably high-quality options will help clients feel respected and empowered. High standards of food handling and safety contribute to an air of professionalism. Quality foods help avoid the feeling that shoppers are receiving society’s discarded and unwanted options.

Maintaining such high standards is hard for organizations that primarily depend on the labor of volunteers. When there are a million responsibilities to manage, it can be hard to repeat food safety training every day for your team to ensure consistency. Volunteers may be uninterested, not adhere to your standards, or not even understand the value of dedicating this extra level of dignity to your clients.

But by continually pushing for the highest quality of dignity, food safety, and facility maintenance, you ensure that guests feel more comfortable, that your food stays safe, and that you have an operation you can be proud of and where your clients leave feeling taken care of.

Here are my four top tips for adding that extra level of professionalism your food pantry deserves to provide a high-quality food service experience for your community.

1. Keep bad or spoiled food out of sight

No matter what, food pantries regularly receive food that is not appropriate to distribute. Grocery stores may donate items that they can’t bear to throw away even though they are clearly inedible. Produce from the food bank may not last as long as we’d hoped. A donor may throw a whole mess of items together in a box that may be crushed, damaged, or contaminated. Every food pantry must dedicate significant effort to sorting the good options from the bad.

Keeping this process out of sight of clients helps reduce or eliminate the impression that food pantries only receive and distribute cast-off, undesirable foods.

No one wants to feel like they are eating garbage, and clients don’t need to know if your food supply was salvaged from a motley collection of questionable donations. Just like making sausage, witnessing the process may negatively impact how clients feel about the good food they do receive.

2. Keep the pantry clean

One of the most common complaints I hear from clients who visit food pantries is that they’re concerned about the cleanliness of the facility. As organizations that primarily depend on volunteer labor, sometimes it can be hard to maintain the building.

Coordinators may be reluctant to add cleaning responsibilities to the volunteer role when the team is focused on supporting clients. Volunteers may not know how to prioritize these responsibilities or may not have adequate training on how to do it well. Staff may not have the capacity to do it all themselves.

Consider establishing a daily check list for volunteers and specific, mandatory cleaning procedures.

For example, my food pantry displays produce in gray plastic bins that are washed and sanitized once emptied. Even if there is only one dirty bin at the end of the day, we still require completing the wash/rinse/sanitize process to ensure everything is kept appropriately clean and food safe. Establish which procedures may have short-cuts and which ones are nonnegotiable.

3. Apologize for spoiled food

Occasionally, no matter how good your team is, food that really shouldn’t be given away makes it up to the pantry shelves. Particularly in the summer heat, food that was already near the end of its viability may go bad for clients to see. When a client points out that something has spoiled, we immediately grab it and apologize, commenting on how embarrassing it is that it happened.

By ensuring our clients know that we recognize that they deserve better, we help them feel respected and dignified. In the same way a restaurant would apologize for serving a faulty meal, we apologize for presenting our clients with poor food options.

4. Thank the people you serve

Food pantry clients need food pantries. We offer an essential resource for people who are struggling to access the food they need to get by. But with the stigma and shame around utilizing food assistance, clients don’t want to be reminded of their dependence on this service. That’s why we always thank our clients for visiting us, and let them know that we’re grateful they came in.

In the same way our clients need us, we need our shoppers- increasing food security makes our entire community stronger and healthier. This simple gesture imbues dignity to the experience and helps avoid any impression of pity or condescension.

Next Post: How to Convince Yourself There’s Enough Food For Everyone.

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

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Top Tips for Prioritizing Clients at Your Food Pantry

Food and hunger are deeply complex issues, and ones which carry a lot of emotional weight. Especially in America, there are strong cultural ideas about hunger that heavily influence how we view it and impact the policies we make to address it. Solutions crafted to end hunger are often ineffective because they address our assumptions rather than the reality.

Luckily, many food pantries have significant autonomy, which means they have the authority to make organization-level policies that address hunger as it is rather than how we feel about it. However, as small nonprofits that may not have a strong social justice foundation that depend upon volunteers to survive, there are just as many opportunities for food pantries to prioritize things other than hunger and the people we serve.

Every food pantry should aspire to be client centered. Client-centered food pantries focus on the needs and experience of the people seeking their services.

Although this may require a significant change in mindset, client-centered food pantries do better helping meet their shoppers’ needs, provide volunteers with more meaningful opportunities for service, and offer a more comfortable environment for everyone.

What are the characteristics of a client-centered food pantry?

  • Services are designed to fit the needs of the clients rather than clients fitting into service model. That means that every pantry should be individualized. What works for one community may not work for another.
  • Assume that the client knows their own needs best. If we are not living in their house with them, then it is impossible for us to judge what foods will best help them celebrate their culture, be healthy, and feel secure.
  • Generosity. Food pantries should not just give clients enough food to fill their bellies- they should give enough to provide emotional security. A full kitchen provides a sense of security as well as many days’ worth of meals. No one walks away with too much food from a food pantry.
  • Be open to criticism. Given the quality of food pantries generally receive, it is inevitable that a loaf of moldy bread occasionally makes its way to a client. A client-centered food pantry recognizes that no one likes being given food that’s gone bad and vows to do better. Even though mistakes are unavoidable, getting defensive only increases animosity and demeans the client.
  • Who is the intended audience of the pantry’s public outreach efforts? Looking at websites and social media, do they target clients, volunteers, or donors? What information will these other demographics be deprived of if outreach efforts focus on clients, helping them access information about your services and resources? Probably very little.
  • Close attention to the use of language. A volunteer once observed that she had never heard me say “no” to a client. If we do not have an item they need, I always try to offer an alternative, even if it isn’t very similar. This prioritizes a sense of abundance that helps our visitors feel like we have enough for everyone.
  • Prioritize client needs. Although food pantries would not function without the community members who donate their time, it’s important to remember that our mission is to serve clients with the help of volunteers rather than using clients to provide volunteers with a meaningful experience. Ideally this is a mutually beneficial relationship, but it is easy for food pantries to emphasize volunteer needs over those of clients.

There has been a transition in the food banking world in the last decade. Food justice advocates are learning that the most effective way to end hunger is to engage with and empower those with lived experience.

Adopting a client-centered pantry model is more dignified for the user, allows the organization to build stronger relationships, and disseminates the idea that everyone deserves to eat good quality food, no matter what.

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

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What is a Trauma-Informed Food Pantry?

No one wants to go to a food pantry. No matter how hard we work to make it better, waiting in line to be given whatever food is available does not feel good for anyone. Many people choose to go hungry rather than seek assistance, fearful of how they might be treated when they’re there. Encountering pity, condescension, or disrespect will deter people from returning. And even if they have a bad experience at only one food pantry, it may be incredibly heard not to harbor fears or reactions about how they may be treated at any food pantry.

 If we’re committed to ending hunger in our community, it is essential that we consider the trauma our clients may be carrying with them when they walk through our doors.

Trauma-informed nutrition recognizes that people seeking emergency food assistance often come to us with trauma. Trauma is an emotional response from a stressful event, and it is important for anti-hunger advocates to recognize that food insecurity can be incredibly traumatic.

We live in a world where people are regularly shamed for their food choices, their eating habits, and their physical outcomes. Few Americans are trauma-free when it comes to food. To create the most welcoming food pantry possible, my pantry has developed policies that recognizes how everything we do has an impact on both the nutritional and emotional health of the people who use our resources.  

How to start building a trauma-informed food pantry

1. Prioritize treating everyone with respect.

My food pantry recently had the longest line we’ve ever seen, and a client spent nearly ten minutes yelling at me about her concerns that people were cutting in front of her. It would have been easier (and much preferred) if I had told her the situation was resolved and walked away. Instead, I recognized that waiting in that long line probably left her and everyone else feeling powerless and scared about getting their needs met, and spent the time to acknowledge her fears by listening. Even when people are rude or disrespectful towards us, my pantry team works hard to respond with compassion because we recognize that our clients’ behavior is often driven by fear.

2. Everyone needs to eat

I often hear stories about other food pantries where clients have been turned away because they lack the proper documentation, were told they “Should be grateful for what they got,” or just treated rudely by a volunteer. All the people who have had these experiences are reluctant to try again, and don’t do so unless it’s absolutely necessary. Along with prioritizing respect, we ensure everyone is welcomed with dignity, and no one is ever turned away or shamed for receiving food.

3. Be flexible and compassionate

It’s important that food pantries have consistent policies to ensure that they are equitably implemented, but it’s also important to recognize our clients’ different needs. There’s a certain amount of information we’re required to get from our shoppers to give them food, but when I have a survivor of domestic violence fearful of sharing even her name, we find ways to make that work. When we have a client who has already shopped for their monthly staples but they’ve taken in extra household members and they absolutely can’t make it until next month, we help them out. When a carload of recent immigrants pulls up right after we have closed for the day, we take care of them. Even though this is exhausting work, it is important that we not lose sight of the need for compassion and how we may need to adapt to circumstances.

These are simple steps, but they can be hard to implement in the moment when faced with stress, anger, and fear. Remembering that food pantry clients are rarely only worried about food and respecting the emotions and attitudes that may accompany them is the first step towards building a trauma-informed food pantry.

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

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What We Get Wrong About the Root Causes of Hunger

When a new client first comes into my food pantry, many feel compelled to explain why they are here. Many of our shoppers have experienced a chain of challenges that has left them without the money to buy food, such as a job loss, medical emergency, housing crisis, or other disaster.

Based on the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality that is engrained into our American psyches, it’s easy to internalize the idea that people have arrived at this position due to their own choices. Somehow, they brought those crises on themselves. We assume that people lack the education, the experience, or sound decision-making abilities that could keep them from needing the help of a food pantry. Nothing could be further from the truth. If hunger were an individual problem, then we’d be able to solve it on the individual level.

Here are the two main ways we frame hunger as an individual failure rather than a systemic problem:

1. Nutrition Education

It’s easy to believe that people wouldn’t be hungry if only they knew how to cook and eat a little more responsibly. If someone had taught them how to prepare lentils, or buy in bulk, or create a meal plan, then they wouldn’t be at risk of food insecurity.

 Nutrition education as a root cause of hunger is a popular misconception because it also addresses the high rates of diet-related disease experienced by people living in poverty. Although it is very clearly documented that low income individuals eat unhealthy foods because they are the most affordable and accessible, we assume that people choose to eat this way because they don’t know any better.

In a society that glorifies willpower as the primary determinant of health, it’s too easy to accept the misconception that food insecurity is fueled by poor eating choices that can be solved with cooking classes and nutritional posters.

At my food pantry, it is very clear that our clients are eager for fresh produce and other healthy options. Everyone knows the basics of how to eat healthy.

The barriers preventing people from eating more whole foods and scratch cooking are numerous and complex. Many food pantry clients live in public housing, transitional housing, retirement units, or other facilities which offer inadequate or nonexistent kitchens. Many of my clients only have access to a microwave. They may have a tiny refrigerator, which they often share with other residents. Cooking is challenging or impossible with these limited resources.

Many food pantry clients work more than one job, often in addition to serving as a caregiver for children or aging relatives. As all of us know, it’s hard enough to find the time to cook healthy meals when we’re only responsible for ourselves. Preparing a healthy meal while providing for others with special needs is a daunting and exhausting responsibility when you barely have enough money to get by.

Ignorance of cultural differences can also color our judgements about how others’ food choices. Our pantry currently serves many Russian and Ukrainian families, who have informed me that beans are not a part of their traditional diet. These families are eager to take bags and bags of potatoes, cabbage, and other fresh produce, but dry beans, often praised as one of the healthiest budget food options, don’t play a role in their cuisine. Blaming poverty on cultural differences like this is ridiculous and disrespectful.

Our clients are eager to eat healthy foods. Fresh produce flies off our shelves. We were surprised to observe the immense popularity of eggplant. I didn’t know that our community vastly prefers green over purple cabbage. Things like sliced fruit and berries rarely make it to the fridge before being snapped up, and you’re likely to see a small child munching on an apple or banana while their parents’ shop.

While we are certainly more comfortable assigning individual blame, I have learned that food pantry clients know how they should eat and would love the opportunity to do so if only they were able. Cooking classes and nutrition resources are powerful resources for building skills, having fun, and improving quality of life, but they are an individual resource that acts as only the tiniest band aid for a systemic problem.

2. Financial Literacy

Our cultural biases in America make us particularly likely to assume that people are hungry because of poor financial decisions. We judge the quality of their car, the way they’re dressed, or the age of the phone they carry, and speculate that if they hadn’t made such frivolous purchases, they probably wouldn’t be hungry.

In reality, most of our food pantry clients have very few opportunities to change their financial situation. Employment opportunities are restricted by skillset, but also transportation, caregiving duties, and scheduling around second and third jobs. Responsibilities like this make it incredibly hard to change jobs or careers while ensuring the household gets the care it needs.

It is easy to make judgements about personal spending and think about how we would have behaved differently if we were in that situation.

We may condemn someone for the purchase of a new phone, recognizing that it may represent several days’ worth of food, but it’s also important to remember that the price of that little luxury will not extract anyone from poverty.

This decision has nothing to do with needing financial education.

Everyone needs a certain level of financial literacy, and, in particular, women are often denied it (and then shamed for their lack of knowledge). Financial literacy classes are an important and useful tool for helping people succeed. But naming financial education as the cause of poverty and hunger demonstrates a blatant misunderstanding of what hunger really looks like.

What Does Cause Hunger?

Food pantry users don’t have access to enough money. Gender and/or racial discrimination keeps wages low and limits employment opportunities. Outrageous costs of living suck up income. Medical or student debt curtails financial freedom.  Caregiving responsibilities consume all time and energy outside of work. While both nutrition education and financial literacy are certainly skills that everyone should have, it is important to remember that they are not root causes of hunger. They are minor strategies we can use to empower people experiencing hunger, but truly effective solutions recognize that hunger is a systemic problem, and effective solutions will not address it on an individual level.  

Empower People Experiencing Hunger With Four Easy Strategies

One of the reasons that there remains such stigma against using food pantries is the sense of powerlessness that comes from someone else determining what you eat. Food choice is deeply personal, and it is invasive and uncomfortable for someone else to make those choices for you.

People seeking emergency food assistance are at the mercy of those providing the resources and are often deeply aware of the power imbalance that comes with it. Food pantry staff work hard to get food to clients, and it can feel uncomfortable or invalidating for shoppers to be choosy, which can lead to pantries adopting a “they should be grateful for what they get” attitude.

But it is equally important to recognize that the power of choice in this setting may be one of the few opportunities many people have in their day-to-day life to say “no.” Rather than create a conflicting dynamic where food pantry staff get the last word, it’s possible to build an environment where choice and dignity are integral to the shopping experience.

Here are four techniques that food pantries can use to give clients autonomy and choice while using food assistance programs.

1. Minimize how often you tell clients, “no.”

We sort all our food out of sight in the warehouse, so clients don’t see it until it’s ready for distribution. This way we avoid clients seeing an option that they can’t have, either because it doesn’t meet our quality standards or because we’re stockpiling it for a later distribution. We work hard to never even mention foods that we’re not actively giving away so that no client feels let down when they don’t see that food. Any food that a client sees is available for them to take.

2. Set limits on as few items as possible, and be realistic.

It is probably necessary to limit some high demand foods like eggs, coffee, and frozen meat or else your supply will be quickly depleted. It can be tempting to put a limit on other popular items, but it’s also important to consider if people are going to adhere to the limit. If it is essential, your shoppers may just take more anyways. Don’t set up a situation when clients are tempted to break the rules or where your volunteers must focus on enforcement. Focus on celebrating when clients find the foods they need, rather than bemoaning when they take more than you think they need. (Read this to help get you there: Food Pantry Transformation With an Attitude of Abundance)

3. Encourage shoppers to take food as you restock the shelves.

We restock constantly throughout the day, so it’s quite likely we will bring in a cart of food that our clients are excited to see. It can be inconvenient or even annoying to have people dig into the boxes as we’re unpacking, but telling clients that they need to wait until we’re done is an unnecessary power play (and breeds competition between shoppers). When people take food as we bring it out, it also saves us from having to put it all away!

4. Don’t let volunteers take food if they’re not shopping as clients!

If you’re part of the Feeding America network, this is policy, but it still happens far too often. It’s easy for a volunteer who put in a hard day of work to feel like they earned that bag of coffee beans, or that it will be easier to just grab a dozen eggs instead of running to the grocery store. Every pantry needs a strict volunteer shopping policy where no food, no matter how small, may be taken unless they are shopping as a client. It is important that clients never get the impression that shopping policies are applied inconsistently because it is hard to feel respected and dignified when you think others are being favored. It is very possible that you will lose volunteers over the strict implementation of this rule, but are those the volunteers you really want to keep?

How clients feel while getting their food from a food pantry is just as important as the quality of food that they receive. Visiting a food pantry feels inherently humiliating and embarrassing, so it’s important to focus on the ways we can help clients leave feeling a little more empowered, respected and dignified. There is no quick fix, but implementing these small techniques will go a long ways towards establishing that everyone has a positive experience at the food pantry.  

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

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How to Adopt an Attitude of Abundance

I recently had a conversation with a first-time client as she hesitantly browsed the shelves of our food pantry. She told me how grateful she was to access our resources, and then vigorously promised me that she would only take the foods she needed to get by until she next got paid.

American culture is steeped in the idea that people experiencing hunger do so because of their own failures, and that food pantries are at risk of abuse by these individuals. This is so engrained in our brains that many of our clients feel like they must reassure me that they won’t abuse our program while taking as little food as possible.

At my food pantry we emphatically believe that no one deserves to be hungry. Hunger is a systemic rather than individual problem, and we know we’re only a tiny band aid for a gaping wound. I gently responded to this new client by telling her that I wanted her to take more food than she needed. I asked her to try foods she’d never eaten before, and to pick out some ingredients that just looked fun to cook with. I told her I hoped she could find some indulgences to treat herself, and that I didn’t want her to only visit us when her cupboards were empty.

Our goal is to keep everyone’s kitchen stocked so that there is never a moment when they are unsure of when their next meal will be. She did not expect this answer and began to cry.

Why is it so radical to tell her to take as much food as she wants? What paradigm taught us to operate under this idea of scarcity?

What is a Scarcity Mindset?

The idea that there isn’t enough food for everyone is engrained in the emergency food assistance program. There isn’t enough food in the donation system for individual pantries, and there isn’t enough food for all the clients who visit those pantries. Pantries then limit how much food people take to ensure there is enough for everyone. It is a simple, clear way to equally dispense food to hungry households. It also makes it likely that someone experiencing hunger will leave a food pantry with less food than they want, and feeling that their individual needs were not met.

I have worked hard over the last several years to turn this attitude on its head by adopting an attitude of abundance. Although there are major shortages throughout the food system, I also see opportunities for changing how we think about the food we give away and the clients we serve.

 It is possible for food pantries to foster a culture which celebrates providing everyone the food they need and the dignity they deserve even while facing food shortages.

How do you cultivate an attitude of abundance?

Physical display of abundance

When we display food in bins, on shelves and in coolers, we make a deliberate attempt to make it look like we have as much food as possible. For our fresh produce bins, that simply means keeping them as full as possible so when clients walk in they immediately see plenty of brightly colored, healthy options.

We also keep our shelves looking full by arranging items like canned goods to take up as much physical space as possible. This may mean not stacking them, bringing them to the front of the shelf, and neatly spacing them out. It is important when our clients first enter the food pantry that they immediately feel, “they’ve got lots of food for me,” rather than worrying about there being enough for everybody.

I also always tell our clients that there’s one specific food I want them to take lots of it. Regular clients now ask me as soon as they walk in, “what do you need me to take today?” This further emphasizes our abundance and implies that we need our clients’ help, making this a reciprocal relationship. (The excess food item has been sweet potatoes for months now due to a generous donor, so our clients will joke and tease me as I beg them to take yet another bag.)

Ensure the pantry culture embraces abundance (which means making sure your volunteers are on board!)

During the height of the pandemic, our pantry offered prepacked food boxes to minimize contact. It allowed us to strictly control how much food went out, but I still heard concerns from volunteers about someone getting too much or having too many specific requests to fill.

To change our attitudes while working with the prepacked boxes of food, I set challenges for my volunteers. I found items not packed in boxes because they were hard to find the perfect home for (frozen banana leaves, a fifty-pound bag of oatmeal, or jars of lutefisk), and challenged my volunteers to find someone who wanted them. It became a game to offer these items to every shopper, and a point of pride for the volunteers who successfully gave them away. Our team began to compete and then to brag about how well they did at meeting clients’ individual needs. As well as being fun, this emphasized to both volunteers and clients that we had an abundance to share, and helped my team appreciate the unique needs of everyone we served. We learned that having one specific item was often more meaningful to a client than giving them boxes and boxes of our regular options.

We also started offering first-time clients double the standard amount of food. Volunteers learned about the stigma of using food assistance, and how that may result in people postponing seeking help until their cupboards are literally bare. Giving double the food helped these families refill their cupboards and provided the emotional security of having what they need to be comfortable and not just survive.

This meant that new clients left with approximately 80 pounds of food. For individuals who had been anxious or reluctant to visit our pantry, this immediately changed their attitude. Many left in tears of gratitude, which also increased our volunteer satisfaction as they saw firsthand the impact that their service had for our neighbors experiencing hunger.

Although we now operate as a grocery-style pantry where clients make all their own food choices, the practice of focusing on individual needs and understanding the stigma of visiting a food pantry was transformational for our organizational culture.

Celebrate meeting your clients’ needs

Prioritizing individual needs and increasing the amount of food clients receive made our transition to a grocery-style pantry much easier since our team had already adopted an attitude of abundance. The most important thing we do now to maintain that culture is to celebrate when a client leaves with a full grocery cart. We know their cart is full of foods that work for them, and that making their own food choices brings dignity and autonomy to a process that can so easily be humiliating.

We have gradually seen the amount of food people take go down, as everyone transitions from a scarcity mindset to an attitude of abundance. Our clients know that we will have the food they need again next week, so there is no urgency in loading up today.

No matter what model a food pantry uses to distribute food, it is possible to foster an attitude of abundance. It is easy to focus on scarcity, but prioritizing abundance helps us change how we think about the needs of our community, how our clients feel when they use these services, and how to imbue dignity into the institutions that fight hunger.   

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

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Why Don’t Food Pantries Have Enough Food?

Discussions about hunger are everywhere right now. Most major foodbanks have increased their outreach efforts encouraging people facing hunger to seek out assistance now that their SNAP benefits have decreased. Across the street from my gym, a massive billboard from a national nonprofit encourages people experiencing hunger to visit their food pantries. Anti-hunger organizations everywhere are seeing enormous increases in need and anticipate that these numbers will continue to rise.

As we face potentially historic hunger rates, the anti-hunger community is bracing itself. There’s no question in any advocate’s mind that we’ll face this challenge head-on with all the ingenuity and stamina we’ve got as long as there are still hungry families. But even with all the dedication and enthusiasm in the world, there are major barrier to impede our efforts.

Is there enough food for everyone?

Technically yes, but also no. The United States has abundant agricultural resources that allows the nation to produce enough calories to feed everyone. There is enough food out there. But getting this food to the people who need it most in a timely and efficient manner is often impossible with the systems we currently have in place.

Time Limits

Unlike other products that a business might be able to store until they need it, food has a time limit. If it isn’t consumed by a specific moment, it’s garbage. (Food pantries have resources indicating how long past expirations dates foods are deemed to be edible and safe for distribution. Date checks and physical inspections are how quality is maintained.)

Much of the fresh food donated to the emergency food assistance program has already started to fade, which means it needs to be given away immediately. But it may not be donated when food pantries need it. Many pantries are open only a few hours at a time- rarely do organizations operate five days a week. If a donation comes available after a weekly distribution, chances are it will not last until the next week. Timing is a key factor in whether a donation can be accepted or not.

The other challenge food pantries face in distributing is how fast they can give food away. For organizations who set limits to ensure everyone gets equal amounts, that means always saving a little food. In some cases, that will include saving food until it is no longer edible.

Bulk donations may also not be able to be given away fast enough. Donations are often conditional to taking the entire amount, which can mean pantries end up with more than they want or can distribute. A pallet of arugula is better than no arugula, even knowing that half of it will end up in the garbage.

Dignity

Businesses are often very eager to donate food that is about to go bad. It provides a tax write-off and keeps it out of their dumpster. While it is important to incentivize donations, food pantries must find a balance between having food to fill the shelves, and giving away items that may make clients feel disrespected or worthless. 

My food pantry uses two questions to evaluate if fresh foods are appropriate to give away:

  1. Will someone be able to eat this tomorrow (is it imminently inedible)?
  2. Will it bring someone joy?

In the case of a moldy onion, it’s quite likely that although the outer layers are bad, there is functional onion inside. However, if you were experiencing hunger and came to a food pantry for help, how would being given a moldy onion make you feel? Probably not good.

We must make sure that our foods demonstrate the respect, dignity, and compassion that our clients deserve. If food pantries are committed to feeding everyone who needs it, it’s important that our clients feel positive or hopeful about their experience. We must consider how they feel as they unpack their groceries at home, which has just as much impact on whether they return as their actual shopping experience.

Transportation

One of the biggest challenges emergency food programs face is transportation. Food often comes available for donation unexpectedly and requires someone to pick it up. Few food pantries have extra capacity for their drivers, and they also tend to work with small vehicles while donations often come in bulk or on pallets. Food pantries may not have the capacity to take as much food as they want, even when they desperately need it. As client numbers grow, many organizations may be faced with demand that far outpaces their food supply.

Storage

Storage capacity is another overwhelming obstacle for food pantries. As small, underfunded nonprofits, food pantries work with the spaces accessible to them which can severely inhibit their capacity to store food. Many pantries are housed in awkward spaces like the basement of a church or unused classroom of a school which may offer only very limited storage. Cold storage may be a collection of home refrigerators and freezers that don’t come close to meeting the needs of the community. Another common model of food distribution is to set up tables full of food in a gym or parking lot, which means all the food being given away is moved from somewhere else and can’t be saved for next time. Not being able to store or stockpile means that once clients have emptied their shelves, there’s no way to refill it until their next food delivery comes in.

Because the type of food available to food pantries in unpredictable, the lack of storage also makes it harder to distribute food in useful combinations. Ideally, everyone would have pasta sauce to distribute alongside spaghetti, but if those foods don’t come on the same day, it can’t be done. Or days when not enough food comes in, pantries can’t pull out a stash of desirable foods to improve the options.

Food pantries are doing incredible and essential work to help fight hunger. Thousands of people are seeking food assistance for the first time in their lives, and are going to find the resources they need to get through another month. But food pantries are facing a real crunch as they have to strategize how to scale up their operations to ensure everyone needs are met while facing these obstacles. These barriers are not easily addressed, and significantly limit the capacity of pantries to fight hunger even as demand rises.

What Do You Think People Experiencing Hunger Should Eat?

On March 1st, 2023, anyone who received SNAP benefits (formerly known as Food Stamps) lost nearly one-hundred dollars per person per month thanks to the expiration of Covid-era bonus benefits. This cut has already had a terrifying impact on people experiencing food insecurity, and anti-hunger advocates expect that it will quickly grow much worse.

The rapidly rising number of people shopping at food pantries has demonstrated just how effective the SNAP program is. It provides dignity to users by allowing them to make their own choices and choose foods that work for their own families and lifestyles. The number of people returning to emergency food assistance services with the loss of these benefits shows us just how many didn’t need it while receiving these benefits.

 Despite the proven effectiveness of SNAP, doubts about the need for and value of welfare are pervasive throughout American society. They are largely fueled by the concept of the “welfare queen,” an imaginary 1980s character who used her welfare benefits to facilitate a life of leisure and excess at the expense of hard-working taxpayers. Concerns about the misuse of benefits and social services permeate how we think about hunger, and they’ve created a conundrum.

Thanks to fears of welfare abuse, society is ready to condemn anyone experiencing food insecurity who eats expensive or quality food.

High-end steak, organic produce, fancy olive oil, and other expensive foods are considered an inappropriate and unnecessary food choice for anyone struggling to meet their food needs. It is deemed irresponsible to spend money on these kinds of items when you could buy greater quantities of lower-quality ingredients.

Conversely, people experiencing poverty are regularly reprimanded for their unhealthy eating habits. Even though chips, soda, and salty snacks are the cheapest and most accessible foods, we see a constant stream of policy proposals eliminating the ability to purchase them with SNAP, increasing taxes to make them more expensive, or other mechanisms intended to make it harder for people living in poverty to access.

These biases have manufactured a very narrow window of food that is considered appropriate for people experiencing hunger to eat; they simply can’t win. They are expected to eat from-scratch meals from bulk ingredients, that are healthy but not too healthy (certainly not organic), but must not eat cheap, accessible soda, chips or instant meals either.

The desire to dictate what food should be available to people experiencing hunger comes from the deeply engrained assumption that people are poor because of personal failure.

American society assumes that people need food assistance because of poor decision-making, which leads us to believe that they make similarly bad choices when it comes to food and need to be told how to eat appropriately.

As anti-hunger activists, it is essential that we examine the biases that we carry through our work. This vision of what we think people should eat is unconscious and pervasive, but it requires a deliberate effort to recognize and change it.

We can start by fighting for people experiencing hunger to be able to make all their own food decisions. We should be advocating for higher and more accessible SNAP benefits, transitioning food pantries to client-choice models, and catching ourselves when we make judgements about what types of foods our neighbors choose to eat.

Building a Better Pantry: Help Your Clients Feel Welcome and Respected

I recently had a food pantry visitor tell me, “It’s embarrassing enough to be here, but you are so welcoming and friendly that it makes it better.” We can’t take away the need to use emergency food services, but there are many things we can do to make it as positive an experience as possible.

Even though the worst impacts of the pandemic lockdown are (hopefully!) behind us, hunger remains a serious problem for many Americans. Inflation, supply chain interruptions, and cuts to SNAP benefits make finding affordable and appropriate groceries more and more complicated. This means that individuals and families who have never previously needed help are finding themselves lined up outside of their local food pantry.

Getting your groceries at a food pantry for the first time can be overwhelming and intimidating. It’s a scary and humbling place to be, and it’s important to prioritize the humanity of this experience.

I’m going to share the techniques we use to ensure that our clients feel welcome and respected on their first visit and help know they are welcome to come back as long as they need our assistance. Although this may look like a simple list of changes to make, successful implementation depends on a genuine belief that everyone deserves to eat which will be entirely determined by the mindset and culture of your food pantry.

Help your clients feel seen.

Find your bubbliest volunteers and put them in charge of making sure every client is personally welcomed to the pantry. I am that person at my pantry, and I keep up a near-constant stream of chatter with whomever is in earshot. I reflect on the weather, eggplant recipes, and how I’m so excited about the latest delivery of sweet potatoes. If you have regular volunteers, help them learn client names so that they can welcome them on repeat visits. If you can remember their food preferences, or the story they told you about their child the other day, it feels so much more welcoming and comfortable.

Make check-in as simple as possible.

Food pantries have lots of reporting responsibilities, which can lead to an excess of bureaucratic processes. See if you can reduce the amount of data you gather. Evaluate what you REALLY need to know about your clients, and what you might have fallen into the habit of gathering for other reasons.

Don’t let your language get too clinical or formal.

Ask for their birthday instead of their date of birth. Don’t talk about their “eligibility” to get food- you’re going to get them food! Be as casual and carefree as you can about processing whatever intake information you need. You never want people to worry that they won’t receive food due to administrative complications.

Let clients make their own choices.

Food choice is important. Everyone knows their own needs best. I certainly would not be comfortable with someone making my grocery decisions for me! Letting shoppers decide what and how much food they need is empowering and dignified. Not everyone likes or eats the same food- so make your pantry reflect this. If you have the capacity, get rid of limits. Data shows that no-limit pantries actually often give away less food, since they increase client confidence that there will be more food on their next visit and reduce waste by letting clients target their specific needs.

Prioritize abundance.

Let clients know what items you have in plenty. Even if it’s something not everyone eats, let them know that you’re swimming in water chestnuts and tell them they should grab a few cans.

Don’t focus on what foods are running low; prioritizing abundance helps your clients develop confidence that you have what they need. It also naturally encourages people to take the appropriate amount for them rather than hoarding or being too frugal.

Celebrate when someone gets lots of food.

You should be proud you had the items that families needed to feel secure! Make check-out as easy as possible, so that no one feels guilty about the amount of food they take. Focus on the fact that you made sure they won’t go hungry tonight.

No one wants to get their food from a food pantry, and far too many people go hungry rather than risk the humiliation they anticipate. Surprise them, and food pantries will see happier clients, greater volunteer satisfaction since they can focus on helping people, and help you explore your next opportunities for building the best, most well-respected food pantry in your community.