Evaluating a Food Pantry-Based Intervention to Improve Food Security, Dietary Intake, and Quality in Midwestern Food Pantries.

Background: Voices for Food was a longitudinal community, food pantry-based intervention informed by the social ecological model, and designed to improve food security, dietary intake, and quality among clients, which was carried out in 24 rural food pantries across 6 Midwestern states.

Objective: Our objective was to evaluate changes in adult food security, dietary intake, and quality from baseline (2014) to follow-up (2016), and to assess the role of adult food security on dietary outcomes.

Design: A multistate, longitudinal, quasi-experimental intervention with matched treatment and comparison design was used to evaluate treatment vs comparison group changes over time and changes in both groups over time.

Fruit and Vegetable Healthy Eating Index Component Scores of Distributed Food Bags Were Positively Associated with Client Diet Scores in a Sample of Rural, Midwestern Food Pantries.

Background: Food pantries have the potential to improve the quality of clients' diets.

Objective: This study evaluated the relationship between the quality of the mix of foods in pantry inventories and client food bags (separately), as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010), with client diet quality and how these relationships varied by food security status.

Design: This cross-sectional, secondary analysis used baseline data from the Voices for Food intervention study (Clinical Trial Registry: NCT03566095).

Dietary Quality and Usual Intake of Underconsumed Nutrients and Related Food Groups Differ by Food Security Status for Rural, Midwestern Food Pantry Clients.

Background: Food pantry users represent a predominantly food insecure population, yet dietary intake may differ among food secure (FS), low FS, and very low FS clients. Usual intake of food groups and nutrients by food security status has not previously been compared among food pantry clients.

Objective: This study aimed to estimate the usual intakes of underconsumed nutrients (ie, potassium; dietary fiber; choline; magnesium; calcium; vitamins A, D, E, and C; and iron) and related food groups (ie, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and dairy) and dietary quality, and to evaluate their relationship with food security status.

Breakfast Consumption Is Positively Associated with Usual Nutrient Intakes among Food Pantry Clients Living in Rural Communities.

Background: Breakfast consumption has declined over the past 40 y and is inversely associated with obesity-related diet and health outcomes. The breakfast pattern of food pantry clients and its association with diet is unknown.

Objective: The objective is to investigate the association of breakfast consumption with diet quality and usual nutrient intakes among food pantry clients (n = 472) living in rural communities.

The development and use of an assessment tool to capture changes in the food pantry nutrition environment and system of food distribution.

Rural food pantries aim to improve food access but low-quality nutritional environments and prescribed systems of food distribution may limit these efforts. Voices for Food (VFF) is a six-state U.S.

Chronic Health Condition Influences on Client Perceptions of Limited or Non-choice Food Pantries in Low-income, Rural Communities.

Food insecurity and diet-related chronic health conditions are interrelated problems in rural communities. The population facing such outcomes may rely on food pantries as a way to gain access to food. Many food pantries use a traditional distribution model that restricts choice.

Daily Dietary Intake Patterns Improve after Visiting a Food Pantry among Food-Insecure Rural Midwestern Adults.

Emergency food pantries provide food at no cost to low-resource populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate single-day dietary intake patterns before and after visiting a food pantry among food-secure and food-insecure pantry clients. This observational cohort study comprised a paired, before-and-after design with a pantry visit as the intervention.