Food Pantry Staff Attitudes about Using a Nutrition Rating System to Guide Client Choice

ABSTRACT

In light of the elevated risk of diet-related illnesses among families who rely on food pantries, there have been efforts to bring more nutritious foods into the food banking system. In the food pantry setting, one idea is to use a stoplight rating system that clearly identifies the nutritional value of each food. However, food pantry staff and volunteers are important partners in implementing any changes to the food pantry environment. To date, little is known about their attitudes toward nutrition rating systems. Therefore, in this study, focus groups with food pantry staff and volunteers were conducted to assess their views on implementing a nutrition rating system, including facilitators and barriers. The findings were that participants believed that many clients, especially those with diet-related illnesses, would benefit from additional nutrition guidance. They recommended providing clear, nonjudgmental messages to identify the rating of each food. They expressed concern about reliable access to healthy foods from food banks and donors. Finally, they noted reasons why clients might not choose healthy foods for reasons unrelated to nutrition, such as lack of transportation and cooking equipment. These findings suggest that by engaging staff from the outset of an intervention study, barriers and challenges can be identified and managed.

KEYWORDS:

• Food pantries
• healthy eating
• food pantry staff
• nutrition rating system
• nutrition education

Conflicts of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.