Thesis
Does structure matter?: the evaluation of the food environment between bag and client choice pantries in Philadelphia
Master of Public Health (M.P.H.), Drexel University
Jun 2017
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-7392
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study is to compared the food environment of two different types of food pantries, bag and client choice, in Philadelphia on the food provided to the clients. Methods: The Food Trust, a nonprofit organization that is devoted to having access to affordable, nutritious food and information to make healthy decisions available to everyone, in collaboration with other SNAP-Ed providers in Philadelphia seek to implement the Pennsylvania Healthy Food Pantry Initiative. The Initiative wants to make the healthy choice the easy choice for food pantry clients and will accomplish this through increasing capacity of food pantries to stock, offer, and promote healthier food through training and technical assistance. Food pantries used for this study were those participating in the Initiative; project leaders of the Initiative contacted pantries by telephone and informed them of the Initiative and added the pantry into the sample if they wanted to participate. Data collected for the project was done through in person or telephone interviews with the head coordinator of the food pantry. The instrument used was the Pennsylvania Healthy Food Pantry Initiative Assessment. Questions 1-13 are descriptive and open-ended questions about the pantry; question 8 from this section will be used for this project so that the pantries can be grouped into bag or client choice. The next section, questions 14-21, is categorical questions based on fresh and shelf food that the pantry provides to its clients. These questions are closed ended and investigate the frequency of the foods provided. These questions will be used to investigate the food environment of the pantries. The Mann-Whitney U Test was used to analyze the data. Results: The results indicated that the only significant difference between the food environments of bag and client choice pantries was the frequency in providing fresh produce and lean meat less than 85%. Conclusion: Produce being significantly offered more in one environment than the other, policies should be in created that provide incentives to local grocers and farmers to provide fresh produce to local food pantries and food pantries should create gardens as well.
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Details
- Title
- Does structure matter?
- Creators
- Danielle Dunston - DU
- Contributors
- Shiriki K. Kumanyika (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Public Health (M.P.H.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Dana and David Dornsife School of Public Health; Community Health and Prevention; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 7392; 991014632296704721