Dessert and Pastries for the Pig Farm The most poignant memory I have from prior volunteering at a large food bank is the anticipation visitors had to select items from the abundant dessert shelves filled with large boxes of pastries and whole cakes. Studies of the diets of low-income populations that rely on food pantries have shown that many do receive adequate calories, yet the diet is still inadequate in nutrients (Handforth et al). This means that food quality is really where we need to be aiming our focus. I felt uneasy and disappointed about all the sugary foods in the charitable food system at that time. This was not the feeling that I got at Metro Caring, a hunger relief center with a food pantry where I spent two weeks in my community rotation. They have taken on bold nutrition policy while also providing nutrition education activities, cooking classes, and healthy “nudges.” After observing their budding nutrition program in action, I realized the challenges of providing healthier foods and opportunities for the RD.
Dietitians at food banks can convince stakeholders to support more daring nutrition initiatives such as nutrition profiling and food policy in order to improve the nutritive quality of foods in the pantry. Food policies can be created to ban certain items such as soda or foods that do not meet certain nutrition criteria limits. For a quick rundown on the nutrition policy at my hunger relief site, they do not stock donated items that have greater than 10 g of sugar or 290 mg of sodium. This by default bans all desserts and soda from the market, as well as high sodium soups and boxed meals. Volunteers and employees in the food access are trained to sort through packaged foods by reading the nutrition fact labels. All the desserts and foods that do not meet the healthy criteria are given to a local pig farm for feed.
Abundant fresh fruits and vegetables at Metro Caring These nutrition policies do not come without challenges. Initially, there was push-back from volunteers not wanting to police the food or waste it. Volunteers are also not experts at reading nutrition labels and sometimes there is confusion. Another challenge I observed is keeping the market shelves stocked full when many items must be rejected. There were a few times when the protein and canned selection was sparse. The number of pounds of food that go out the door is a primary measure of success for food banks and so the weight gap created by the nutrition policy needs to be filled by seeking fresh produce and other donors that support your cause. More fresh produce means more perishables, which required the daily logistics and creativity of staff and volunteers to store and promote it. On the other hand, I witnessed many triumphs of the nutrition policy at Metro Caring, which are not shared in this article.
RDs can make a positive impact on the charitable food system by creating policies, and educating donors, stakeholders, and the food insecure. To learn more about healthy initiatives and programs in Food Banks, you can visit the following links IOM Nutrition-Focused Food Banking and University of Wisconsin Healthy Food Initiatives in Food Banks.
References
Handforth B, Hennink M, Schwartz B. J Acad Nutr Diet. A qualitative study of nutrition-based initiatives at selected food banks in the feeding America network. 2013 Mar; 113(3):411-5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23438492
RDs can make a positive impact on the charitable food system by creating policies, and educating donors, stakeholders, and the food insecure. To learn more about healthy initiatives and programs in Food Banks, you can visit the following links IOM Nutrition-Focused Food Banking and University of Wisconsin Healthy Food Initiatives in Food Banks.
References
Handforth B, Hennink M, Schwartz B. J Acad Nutr Diet. A qualitative study of nutrition-based initiatives at selected food banks in the feeding America network. 2013 Mar; 113(3):411-5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23438492
