Promoting and Enhancing Good Nutrition in Food Pantries
This new publication from the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security dives into the topic of food pantry nutrition. Based on more than two years of working closely with food pantries in central Missouri, the guide offers a number of creative and promising approaches to getting healthier foods in to food pantries and on the tables of food pantry customers.
The resource highlights nutrition improvement strategies in four different areas – Food Availability and Access, Food Consumption, Food Pantry Capacity and Development, and Food Acquisition and Distribution. It also spotlights the work of people and organizations making it happen.
Healthy Shelves can be downloaded here.
Additional resources that accompany the guide can be found at the links below:
- Healthy Food Drive Tips – for hosting a food drive with a focus on healthier foods.
- Donating Produce from Farms and Gardens – for tips on how food pantries and growers can work together to increase produce donations.
- Safely Harvesting and Handling Produce – for tips on using safe harvesting and handling practices when making donations of fresh produce to a food pantry.
- Seeds that Feed – for starting a seed distribution and gardening education program to help more food pantry customers grow their own.
Contact Bill McKelvey, McKelveyWA@missouri.edu, for more information.
This project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Grant No. 2010-85216-20645 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Human Nutrition and Obesity Program – 93330.