Examining Patterns of Food Bank Use Over Twenty-Five Years in Vancouver, Canada

The Nutritional Quality of Food Donated to a Western Australian Food Bank

Food banks provide an indispensable service to people experiencing severe food insecurity. Food banks source donations from across the food system; however, the food redistributed to clients across the developed world is nutritionally poor. This, together with the increasing prevalence of diet-related diseases and food insecurity, has prompted a focus on nutritional quality. Despite more food being distributed via food banks in Australia, the nutritional quality of donated food remains unreported. This study analyzed all food (84,996 kg (1216 products)) donated to Foodbank WA over a 5-day period using diet-, food-, and nutrient-based nutrition classification schemes (NCSs). A total of 42% (27% of total weight) of donated food products were deemed 'unsuitable' and 19% (23% by weight) were 'suitable' according to all NCSs. There was no agreement on 39% of products (50% by weight). Overall, NOVA and the Healthy Eating Research Nutrition Guidelines (HERNG) (κ = 0.521) had the highest level of agreement and the ADGs and HERNGs the lowest (κ = 0.329). The findings confirm the poor nutritional quality of food donated to food banks and the need to work with donors to improve the food they donate. Fit-for-purpose nutrition guidelines are urgently needed for Australian food banks to support them in providing nutritious food to their vulnerable clients.

Characterizing Trends in the Use of Food Donations and Other Food-Related Community-Based Social Assistance Programs in a Cohort of New Food Bank Users in Quebec, Canada

Objective: To characterize 12-month trends in the use of food donations and other food-related community-based social assistance programs (CB-SAPs) during the first year following the enrollment of new food bank (FB) users in Quebec, Canada. Methods: A cohort of 1,001 newly registered FB-users in Quebec from the Pathways Study were followed-up during 12-month following baseline assessment. Outcomes were monthly use of food donations and other food-related CB-SAPs. Main predictors were alternative food source utilization (AFSU) profiles: 1) exclusive-FB-users; 2) FB+fruit/vegetable-market-users; and 3) Multiple/diverse-AFS-users. Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and major life events. We fit Bayesian hierarchical mixed-effect models, accounting for spatial clustering, temporal correlation, and censoring. Results: We observed an overall downward trend of food donation use among study completers (n = 745). Each AFSU profile had a distinctive monthly trend of food donation use, but probabilities of use across the three profiles overlapped, between 44% and 55%. The use of other food-related CB-SAPs was low and not correlated with AFSU profiles. Conclusion: De novo FB-users use food donations in different ways over time according to specific contextual AFSU profiles.

Food-related worry and food bank use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: results from a nationally representative multi-round study

BACKGROUND

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in five adults in Canada worried about having enough food to meet their household's needs. Relatedly, throughout the pandemic, public messaging repeatedly urged Canadians to support food charities, including food banks. Yet few studies have examined food bank usage during the pandemic or whether food charities were widely used by Canadians worried about food access.

METHODS

This study draws on four rounds of nationally representative surveying conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic between May 2020 and December 2021 among adults 18 years and older living in Canada. Descriptive statistics were used to examine rates of food-related worry during all four survey rounds. Data from the fourth survey round, collected in December 2021, were used to explore use of food-based community programs since the onset of the pandemic, including food banks. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine differences in socio-demographic and health-related characteristics between adults who did and did not report accessing food banks before and after adjusting for household income.

RESULTS

Across survey rounds (n = 12,091), more than one in seven participants reported stress or worry related to having enough food to meet their household's basic needs in the previous two weeks. Yet, by December 2021, fewer than 4% of participants reported ever accessing a food bank during the pandemic. Younger age, living with a child, financial concerns due to the pandemic, two different measures of food worry, pre-existing mental health conditions, disability, LGBT2Q + identity, and racialized or Indigenous identity, were each statistically significantly associated with higher odds of using food banks even when controlling for household income.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite persistently high rates of food-related worry in 2020 and 2021 in Canada, relatively few adults reported accessing food banks or other charity-based community food programs. While respondents facing social, financial, and health-related inequities and reporting food worry were more likely to use food banks, most respondents did not report food bank use, regardless of financial or demographic circumstances or experiences of food worry. Findings align with previous research indicating that more adequate and comprehensive supports are needed to alleviate food-related-worry in Canada.

The Pathways study: a cohort study of new food-aid users in rural, semi urban, and urban areas of Quebec, Canada

BACKGROUND

While considerable research has been conducted on household food insecurity (HFI), little research has examined the effects of food donation programs on users' living conditions. The Pathways study was established to investigate the long-term effects of food donation programs on food insecurity as well as other critical outcomes, such as diet, health, and social support. Herein, we describe the design of the Pathways Study and the participants' characteristics at baseline.

METHODS

The Pathways study is a prospective cohort study of 1001 food-aid users in Quebec (Canada). We recruited newly registered users of food donation programs from 106 community-based food-aid organizations that partnered with the study. Baseline data were collected through face-to-face interviews from September 2018 to January 2020, with planned follow-up interviews at 12 and 24 months after enrollment. Household food insecurity, diet, food competencies, food shopping behaviors, perceived food environment, health status, social support and isolation, sociodemographic characteristics, housing conditions, negative life events, and the impacts of COVID-19 were assessed with validated questionnaires.

RESULTS

The cohort included 1001 participants living in rural (n = 181), semi-urban (n = 250), and urban areas (n = 570). Overall, household food insecurity was reported as severe among 46.2% and moderate in 36.9% of participants. Severe household food insecurity was more prevalent in rural (51.4%) and urban (47.8%) areas compared to semi-urban (39%) areas. Overall, 76.1% of participants reported an annual income below C$20,000. Half (52%) had low education levels (high school or lower), 22.0% lived in single-parent households, and 52.1% lived alone. Most (62.9%) experienced at least one major financial crisis in the preceding year.

CONCLUSIONS

Results show that newly registered users of food donation programs often have low-income and severe food insecurity, with major differences across geographical locations. The Pathways study is the first study designed to follow, over a 2-year period, a cohort of newly registered users of food donation programs and to quantify their trajectories of service use. Findings from the Pathways study might help adapt the community response to the strategies used by food-insecure households to feed themselves.

A systematic literature review of food banks’ supply chain operations with a focus on optimization models

Purpose

Food banks play an increasingly important role in society by mitigating hunger and helping needy people; however, research aimed at improving food bank operations is limited.

Design/methodology/approach

This systematic review used Web of Science and Scopus as search engines, which are extensive databases in Operations Research and Management Science. Ninety-five articles regarding food bank operations were deeply analyzed to contribute to this literature review.

Findings

Through a systematic literature review, this paper identifies the challenges faced by food banks from an operations management perspective and positions the scientific contributions proposed to address these challenges.

Originality/value

This study makes three main contributions to the current literature. First, this study provides new researchers with an overview of the key features of food bank operations. Second, this study identifies and classifies the proposed optimization models to support food bank managers with decision-making. Finally, this study discusses the challenges of food bank operations and proposes promising future research avenues.

Communal Labor in Ecovillages: Contradictions, Impasses, and Possibilities within the Notion of Self-sufficiency

Our goal is to outline the concept of communal labor in ecovillages of Brazil. To do that, we considered three elements: (1) political orientation for self-sufficiency; (2) technical-productive orientation in self-managed work and in plural economic practices; and (3) socio-environmental orientation centered on the recovery of biodiversity. We collected data in four ecovillages for 49 days, through a methodological path of inspiration ethnography with fieldnote and participant observation, followed by remote monitoring for 22 months. Our option was for flexible procedure to collect complex dynamics of management and routines of life by dialogues between researchers and informants. The results show that communal labor emerged in ecovillages as a resistance to market-centric society, although dependent on it incidentally. If, on the one hand, there are tensions and contradictions, on the other they reveal a strong organizational practice that shows possibilities and ways of redefining the relationships among human beings, and between collective organizations and ecosystems, by mitigating elements of alienation on values that inspire human emancipation.

More food for thought: a follow-up qualitative study on experiences of food bank access and food insecurity in Ottawa, Canada

BACKGROUND

Despite the widespread proliferation of food banks in high-income countries over the past several decades, there is a paucity of data regarding the long-term experiences of the people who rely on food banks. We were unable to find any other studies with follow-up interviews later than 6 months after baseline.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the changes in the lived experiences of people who accessed food banks over a period of 18 months.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 people who accessed food banks in Ottawa, Canada and who had participated in a 6-month study that ended one full year before this follow-up study was done. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed through a general inductive approach involving repeated readings and coding of relevant segments of text with NVivo software according to themes that emerged iteratively. Code reports were then used to discuss and reach consensus on a final set of themes.

RESULTS

Three main themes emerged: (1) chronic physical and mental health issues intersecting with food bank access; (2) psychosocial impact of relying on food banks; and (3) living on a low income and dealing with poverty. Chronic physical and mental health conditions were prevalent among the participants. As well, 10 of the 11 participants in this 18-month follow-up continued to rely on food banks as a regular resource - not as an emergency relief measure - to supplement their nutritional needs. While most of the participants reported that food banks helped them in some way, many shortcomings were also noted regarding food amounts, quality and choice. Overall, there was little change reported since the 6-month follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

The shortcomings reported by participants can mostly be attributed to the dependence of food banks on charitable donations; thus, despite the commendable work of food bank staff and volunteers, participants described the food assistance as inadequate. Additionally, long-term food bank usage was a common denominator in the lived experiences of all our participants; therefore, our findings reinforce the need for assistance programs that target long-term food insecurity and its underlying causes, to replace or supplement charity-based food bank programs.

Food Pantry Usage Patterns are Associated with Client Sociodemographics and Health

Characterizing food pantry (FP) clients' FP usage patterns may provide opportunities to tailor health-related interventions. Respondents (n=245) at seven FPs reported their frequency and reliance on FPs and their sociodemographics, health status, and health-related trade-offs. Clients were categorized via latent class analysis. Higher FP usage was associated with being older, having a household member with heart disease, and putting off buying medicine to buy food. Lower FP usage was associated with higher levels of education and having a household member with cancer. Findings highlight the potential importance of measuring FP clients' degree of FP use.

Changes in accessibility to emergency and community food services during COVID-19 and implications for low income populations in Hamilton, Ontario

In this paper we analyze the changes in accessibility to emergency and community food services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the City of Hamilton, Ontario. Many of these food services are the last line of support for households facing food insecurity; as such, their relevance cannot be ignored in the midst of the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic. Our analysis is based on the application of balanced floating catchment areas and concentrates on households with lower incomes (<CAD40,000, approximately the Low Income Cutoff Value for a city of Hamilton's size). We find that accessibility was low to begin with in suburban and exurban parts of the city; furthermore, about 14% of locations originally available in Hamilton closed during the pandemic, further reducing accessibility. The impact of closures on the level of service of the remaining facilities, and on accessibility, was disproportionate, with system-wide losses exceeding 39%. Those losses were geographically and demographically uneven. While every part of the city faced a reduction in accessibility, inner suburbs fared worse in terms of loss of accessibility. As well, children (age ≤18) appear to have been impacted the most.

Dietary health in the context of poverty and uncertainty around the social determinants of health

Lower household income has been consistently associated with poorer diet quality and poorer dietary health outcomes. Households experiencing poverty find themselves unable to afford enough food, and the food that they can afford is often poor quality, energy dense and low in nutrients. However, the relationship between diet, poverty and health is complex. Not everyone on a low income has a poor diet. Poverty is about more than low incomes and it is not a uniform experience. Particular aspects of the experience of poverty have implications for diet and dietary health. It is increasingly apparent that uncertainty is one of those aspects. Recession, welfare policy, employment trends and widening inequality have created more uncertainty for those on low incomes. In the context of heightened uncertainty, all aspects of household food provisioning - including budgeting, shopping, storage, meal planning and cooking - are more difficult and sometimes impossible. This review will draw on research about food practices and dietary health in low-income neighbourhoods to explore the ways in which experiences of prolonged uncertainty shape dietary practices and impact health and well-being.

The impact of novel and traditional food bank approaches on food insecurity: a longitudinal study in Ottawa, Canada

Background

Food insecurity is strongly associated with poor mental and physical health, especially with chronic diseases. Food banks have become the primary long-term solution to addressing food insecurity. Traditionally, food banks provide assistance in the form of pre-packed hampers based on the food supplies on hand, such that the food items often do not meet the recipients’ cultural, religious or medical requirements. Recently, new approaches have been implemented by food banks, including choice models of food selection, additional onsite programming, and integrating food banks within Community Resource Centres.

Methods

This study examined changes in food security and physical and mental health, at four time points over 18 months at eleven food banks in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The participants – people who accessed these food banks – were surveyed using the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) and the Short-Form Health Survey Version 2 (SF-12). Statistical analyses included: pairwise paired t-tests between the mean perceived physical and mental health scores across the four waves of data collection, and longitudinal mixed effects regression models to understand how food security changed over time.

Results

The majority of people who were food insecure at baseline remained food insecure at the 18-month follow-up, although there was a small downward trend in the proportion of people in the severely food insecure category. Conversely, there was a small but significant increase in the mean perceived mental health score at the 18-month follow-up compared to baseline. We found significant reductions in food insecurity for people who accessed food banks that offered a Choice model of food distribution and food banks that were integrated within Community Resource Centres.

Conclusions

Food banks offer some relief of food insecurity but they don’t eliminate the problem. In this study, reductions in food insecurity were associated with food banks that offered a Choice model and those that were integrated within a Community Resource Centre. There was a slight improvement in perceived mental health at the 18-month time point; however, moderately and severely food insecure participants still had much lower perceived mental health than the general population.