Improving Health while Alleviating Hunger: Best Practices of a Successful Hunger Relief Organization

Abstract

BackgroundFood insecurity affects millions each year in the United States. Hunger relief organizations work to reduce hunger and food insecurity; however, the foods they provide are often unhealthy.ObjectiveThe objective of this article is to document the policy, systems, and environmental changes that Samaritan Community Center made to their programs in order to better serve Washington County and Benton County, Arkansas.MethodsWith the use of a case-study approach, researchers held 17 meetings with key members of the organization and conducted >30 h of observations to document policy, systems, and environmental changes and best practices for implementing those changes.ResultsResearchers identified emergent themes and grouped best practices in the following categories: 1) removing stigma and empowering clients, 2) incremental steps to increase access to healthy foods, 3) embracing multiculturalism, 4) donation policies and procurement, 5) collaboration is key, 6) organizational culture, and 7) challenges and resolutions.ConclusionsSamaritan Community Center has successfully implemented and adopted new programs and practices in order to improve the health of their clients. To our knowledge, this is the first case study to document best practices for making policy, systems, and environmental changes by a hunger relief organization to improve the nutritional quality of foods provided to their clients.

Healthy eating strategies for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations: a meta-ethnography

“…This finding reveals a paradox, as vouchers are intended to increase autonomy but may unintentionally result in the opposite effect. To remove stigma and enhance individuals’ sense of pride and autonomy, HE strategies might allow participants to make their own choices and engage people in experiential learning processes tailored to their needs and preferences (Rowland et al, 2018 ). Community gardens may be an effective HE strategy in this regard, as they provide participants the opportunity to grow and select their own food, in turn enhancing their feelings of independence, self-esteem, and control while also improving their physical health (Egli et al, 2016 ; Malberg Dyg et al, 2020 ).…”

A Community Partnership for Home Delivery of Food Boxes to COVID-19 Quarantined and Isolated Families

“…The effort included diverse partners, several of whom had long-standing relationships with UAMS through previous and ongoing CBPR projects. 26,27,29,32,33 Food was sourced from the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and food pantries, packaged into family-size boxes by three local food pantries, delivered to a central location by a community-based food distribution recovery organization, stored in a refrigerated truck donated by a local food industry vendor and distributor, and delivered through a combination of volunteer drivers of personal cars and volunteers paired with local regional buses available to run delivery routes. Churches, worksites, community-based organizations and UAMS provided volunteers.…”

“…The CBPR partnership launched several successful initiatives published elsewhere. [26][27][28][29] This long-standing CBPR partnership allowed for a rapid collaborative response to COVID-19 associated food insecurity.…”

The hunger-obesity paradox: Exploring food banking system characteristics and obesity inequities among food-insecure pantry clients

“…This includes the expansion of research and advocacy partnerships like Drexel University's Witness to Hunger Program which started in 2008 [73,74]. In particular, participatory action research and citizen science approaches should be promoted as viable strategies for enhancing client representation, inclusion, empowerment, and self-sufficiency in the context of designing, implementing, and evaluating PSE interventions addressing inequitable risks in the co-occurrence of food insecurity and obesity [73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80]. As reflected in key findings from the current study, narrative storytelling is a viable strategy for improving client representation [73].…”

“…In addition to partnering with the education system, the food banking literature provides examples of strategic partnerships with the healthcare system [81][82][83][84]; civic organizations focused on social determinants of health like housing and gender equity [77,78,80,81]; and food policy councils as viable options for addressing food insecurity [61]. Regarding the former, a recent systematic review points to a critical need for high-quality evaluations of hospital-based food insecurity intervention, including those with a focus on the co-occurrence of hunger and obesity [84].…”