“It’s Nice to Have a Little Bit of Home, Even if It’s Just on Your Plate” – Perceived Barriers for Latinos Accessing Food Pantries

ABSTRACT

The study objective was to identify the barriers for Latinos accessing food pantries from the pantry volunteer perspective. Interviews were conducted with eight food pantry volunteers in Washoe County, Nevada, coded and thematically analyzed using NVivo. The perceived barriers preventing Latinos from accessing food pantries identified included pantry-level barriers (e.g., volunteers’ perceptions of client backgrounds) and built environment and societal barriers (e.g., legal, transportation). Recognizing these barriers can help identify intervention targets to build food systems that are culturally inclusive promoting health and well-being for food pantry clients.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• food pantry
• Latinos
• barriers

Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank the volunteers who participated in this study. Additional thanks to Brittney Rosiles and Chelsey Nedza for their help in transcribing the audio files. Lastly, the authors would like to thank Dr. Adel Mburia-Mwalili, Dr. Sarah Friedman, and Dr. Karla Wagner for their time in reading and providing feedback on this manuscript.

Notes

1. While the terms Hispanic and Latino are often used interchangeably, in this manuscript the authors use the term Latino as it is thought to be a more inclusive term.