Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries

New Tools to End Hunger

Katie S. Martin

• Publisher: Island Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781642831542
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

In the US, there is a wide-ranging network of at least 370 food banks, and more than 60, 000 hunger-relief organizations such as food pantries and meal programs. These groups provide billions of meals a year to people in need. And yet hunger still affects one in nine Americans. What are we doing wrong?In Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries, Katie Martin argues that if handing out more and more food was the answer, we would have solved the problem of hunger decades ago. Martin instead presents a new model for charitable food, one where success is measured not by pounds of food distributed but by lives changed. The key is to focus on the root causes of hunger. When we shift our attention to strategies that build empathy, equity, and political will, we can implement real solutions.Martin shares those solutions in a warm, engaging style, with simple steps that anyone working or volunteering at a food bank or pantry can take today. Some are short-term strategies to create a more dignified experience for food pantry clients: providing client choice, where individuals select their own food, or redesigning a waiting room with better seating and a designated greeter. Some are longer-term: increasing the supply of healthy food, offering job training programs, or connecting clients to other social services. And some are big picture: joining the fight for living wages and a stronger social safety net.These strategies are illustrated through inspiring success stories and backed up by scientific research. Throughout, readers will find a wealth of proven ideas to make their charitable food organizations more empathetic and more effective. As Martin writes, it takes more than food to end hunger. Picking up this insightful, lively book is a great first step.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Imagine that your neighbor Maria just lost her job. She had a couple months’ worth of savings, but soon she is having a hard time paying all of the bills. When she realizes that she won’t have enough food to feed her kids by the end of the week, she decides to ask for help. She heard about a local food pantry in town, and she decides to park her pride at the curb and check it out.

Imagine that as she walks in a woman greets her warmly and asks if she’s been to the pantry before. Maria ducks her head and says no. The woman welcomes her and explains that she came to the pantry for the first time not long ago herself. The woman introduces Maria to a volunteer who will help her shop in the pantry. The volunteer hands Maria a small shopping cart, and Maria almost feels like she’s at the grocery store. Since it is Maria’s first time, the volunteer explains that the mission of the pantry is to be a community hub where guests come for food, connection, and much more.

The volunteer points out signs on the pantry shelves for how many food items to take, and she encourages Maria to choose the food she wants. Imagine that there is a table with recipes and another table with freshly brewed coffee and water. Last year the doctor told Maria that she is prediabetic, and Maria is pleasantly surprised to see signs showing which foods are diabetes friendly. As she walks down the aisles, she picks out food that she knows her kids will like. Imagine that there is a glass-front refrigerator displaying fruit, milk, and yogurt. Her daughter is going to love the yogurt! Imagine that there is also a shelf filled with diapers, soap, toilet paper, and laundry detergent. It’s summertime and the pantry received a lot of squash, so the volunteer tells Maria to take as much as she likes.

Imagine that as she shops, Maria sees a neighbor that she knows from her daughter’s school. She says hi and asks if Maria is coming to the resource fair that’s being held at the pantry later in the week. Maria asks her about the fair. The friend explains that different community agencies and local businesses come once a month to describe their programs and services for people who shop at the pantry. It’s an easy way to learn about resources in the community and to enroll in different programs. The neighbor encourages Maria to come and check it out. Maria had no idea that the food pantry offered these types of services. She thought the pantry just provided food.

Imagine that the pantry is bustling with a steady flow of activity as guests and volunteers interact. One of the volunteers explains that guests can come to the pantry once a week, and in addition to the food, the pantry offers classes and workshops. The volunteer says her favorite is the yoga class that helps to keep her stress down. She points to a large white board with information and sign-up sheets. There is a job training program, diabetes prevention, computer class, and advocacy 101. She explains that the pantry also has a coach that is available to provide oneon-one support to help guests work on goals.

Imagine that when Maria drove to the pantry, she felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her because she never thought she would need to ask for charity. When she walks out of the pantry, she feels encouraged and empowered. Imagine that Maria goes to the resource fair, she starts going to some of the classes, and she meets regularly with a coach to work on budgeting and applying for a new job. She takes a diabetes prevention class, is eating more vegetables, and brings her blood sugar down. After three months, she starts a new job, and now she comes to the pantry to volunteer. Maria met some new friends at the pantry and she is becoming an advocate for her community.

Can you imagine this type of food pantry? Do you have a pantry like this in your community? I hope so. This book will provide tools and resources for creating this type of holistic, empowering, healthy, community food hub. The type of food pantry that provides food but also serves as a springboard for stability, food security, and well-being so people won’t need to rely on the food pantry long-term.

Hungry for Change

Many people I have met, who either receive food from food pantries or who work at food pantries and food banks, are looking for new solutions beyond bags of food. They are hungry for change. Despite the fact that hunger is a chronic problem that affected one out of every nine Americans in 2018, it is preventable. We are a nation of very smart, caring, and innovative people. So why is it that millions of Americans do not have enough food to eat?

In the United States, we have built an impressive network of food banks that have grown in number and size over five decades. According to Food Bank News, at least 370 food banks across the United States acquire perishable and nonperishable food and redistribute it to organizations that provide food directly to individuals. There are over 60,000 hunger-relief organizations such as food pantries and community kitchens in the United States. They operate in virtually every community around the country. Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States, serves a nationwide network of 200 food banks, and is the second largest charity in the United States.

The focus of this national network has been, and continues to be, to tackle hunger by providing more food to more people. We’ve done a great job of that. Collectively in 2018, the Feeding America network distributed over 4 billion meals (with a b ) to people in need.

That we have such pervasive food insecurity is not because we do not have enough food.

Yet, if this tactic were successful, we would have solved the problem of hunger a long time ago. Sadly, food insecurity remains a persistent public health problem, affecting over 37 million Americans in 2018. Millions of our neighbors worry about having enough food at the end of the week or the end of the month. That we have such pervasive food insecurity is not because we do not have enough food. We lack justice and equity within our food system, we lack the courage or patience to tackle the root causes of poverty, and we lack the political will to ensure living wages and a strong social safety net. We can do better.

It is time for a new approach. Most food banks have been operating for over thirty-five years, and there is a new wave of leaders who are coming into the network with fresh ideas and solutions. Maybe you are one of these new leaders—welcome to the network! At the same time, many local food pantry directors are nearing retirement, and we will need a new generation of leaders to take their place. Maybe you are thinking of a new career path and can help pave a new direction. Community colleges, health clinics, and hospitals are starting new food pantries within their facilities. Rather than maintaining the status quo, we have an opportunity (and, I believe, a responsibility) to reinvent what food banks and food pantries look like and how they operate.

In an effort to provide “emergency” food, we have designed systems that are largely transactional, with a focus on serving as many people as possible as quickly as possible. I provide a roadmap for designing food pantries that are instead relational and can be transformational, and which emphasize health, social justice, community, and a person-centered design.

My hope is this book will inspire you to think differently about why hunger exists and how we have responded to it, with both public and private programs. This book provides tools to create a healthier and more comprehensive approach to address food insecurity. Throughout, I give examples of best practices and model food pantries. I suggest different options for incorporating these concepts in your own programs. I’m impatient by nature. Don’t worry, I won’t make you wait until the last chapter to give you a few solutions. At the end of every chapter, I provide action steps that you can take today in your community.

Please do not see these strategies as one-size-fits-all or all-or-nothing. I encourage you to think of the following pages as a menu.

Here is my appeal as you consider the various tools outlined in this book. Please do not see these strategies as one-size-fits-all or allor-nothing. I encourage you to think of the following pages as a menu. If you find one idea that appeals to you and you decide to implement it in your food bank or food pantry, terrific! Maybe you decide to try three new ideas, like an appetizer, entrée, and dessert—that’s wonderful! You can start small and take one bite.

Upcoming Chapters

Here is a look ahead and what you can expect from this book. In chapter 2, I provide a brief history of food assistance programs in the United States, starting with food stamps and child nutrition programs. After examining how food banks and food pantries developed, we’ll look at an example of a holistic food pantry model that offers connection, coaching, and more than just food. In chapter 3, I describe key terms used throughout the book and make suggestions for new language to describe our work.

In chapter 4, I encourage you to think about the experience of clients (which I will often refer to as guests or customers) when they go to a food pantry. I offer examples of how to design pantries to create a welcoming environment with attention to seating and signage, how to designate a greeter, and how to de-escalate situations when tensions arise. To help move food pantries from transactional to transformational, we can train staff and volunteers in hospitality and customer service, taking tips from the retail and hotel industries.

In chapter 5, I detail how to switch from a traditional food pantry model where volunteers prebag food and hand food to clients, to a client choice model in which the pantry is designed like a grocery store where clients can shop for their food with dignity. When volunteers spend less of their time bagging food, they can spend more time greeting guests and building relationships.

In chapter 6, I describe the strong connection between hunger and health and why we should focus not just on pounds of food but on the nutritional quality of the food. If you are on a limited budget in a low-income community, it is easy to access and afford highly processed food such as soda, ramen noodles, and chips, which contribute to chronic diseases. We can use a lens of social justice to help level the playing field by making it easier for guests to access fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean protein in food pantries. I provide examples for promoting healthy food at food banks and food pantries, including a stoplight nutrition ranking system and tools for asking food donors to donate healthier food.

In chapter 7, I highlight the importance of building relationships between guests and staff to address the root causes of hunger. I describe an evidence-based program called More Than Food. After providing billions of meals to people over decades, we know that it takes more than food to end hunger. Food pantries that offer More Than Food have coaches who are trained in motivational interviewing skills in a strength-based and nonjudgmental approach to meet people where they are. The coaches work one-on-one with individuals to identify the reasons why the family is struggling with food insecurity and to connect the family with community resources that will build their self-sufficiency, such as job training, skill building, and education.

The charitable food system would not exist if it weren’t for the valuable contributions of volunteers, which we’ll discuss in chapter 8. In chapter 9, I describe the importance of conducting research to evaluate how we’re doing and to measure the impact of our programs on the people we serve.

In chapter 10, I explore the underlying reasons why people struggle to get enough food, including income inequality, structural racism, and systemic injustices that create and perpetuate food insecurity for marginalized groups. We will talk about the working poor and strategies for creating bridges out of poverty. Recognizing the root causes of hunger can help us advocate for a stronger social safety net and living wages.

If we want to advocate for policy change outside our organizations, it is important to look within. In chapter 11, I describe examples for building equity, diversity, and inclusion within food banks and food pantries and how to include the voices of those who have experienced hunger. Sharing the stories and experiences of the people who visit food pantries can help reduce social stigma and serve as a powerful advocacy tool.

New organizations are interested in partnering with food banks and food pantries, which I describe in chapter 12. For example, health-care providers and colleges recognize that their patients and students may be struggling with food insecurity and are finding creative ways to increase access to healthy food and reduce health disparities. The tools and action steps throughout the book should be helpful for new organizations that are just getting started and may not have thought about how to design or run a food pantry. In chapter 12, I also provide suggestions for putting these tools together in a holistic community food hub like the one that Maria visited in the beginning of this chapter.

In chapter 13, I provide tools for building organizational buy-in to adopt these new approaches in food banks and food pantries. Throughout the book I show examples of programs and organizations that are making substantial impacts and can serve as role models for others. I am partnering with Feeding America, multiple food banks, and food pantries, and I highlight best practices. We don’t have to start from scratch or re-create the wheel. We can work within the existing and robust system of food banks, food pantries, and community kitchens blanketing our communities. This book offers tangible action steps for operating food pantries that will promote the health and stability of families and create a bridge for self-sufficiency rather than merely a short-term Band-Aid of food.

Reinvention of the Charitable Food System

My goal for this book is bold yet simple: to reinvent the way we provide charitable food in America. We can improve the quality of the food provided, the design of our food pantries, the language we use to describe our work, the way we treat and greet people when they arrive, our methods of measuring success, and, ultimately, the long-term solutions to hunger. To reinvent a whole system that has developed over multiple decades is a big goal. I know th...