Assessing foodshelves' ability to distribute healthy foods to foodshelf clients

Foodshelves provide a vital service of distributing food to food insecure families, but the resources foodshelves have to source and distribute healthy food and the extent to which this emergency food is healthy have not been evaluated. All member foodshelves of the Emergency Foodshelf Network (n = 58), a food bank in Minnesota, were sent a survey that assessed resources and barriers related to organizational policies, infrastructure, and access to healthy food that foodshelves face. Results from 35 responding agencies suggest that foodshelves with healthy food sourcing and distribution policies tended to serve larger caseloads, be managed by paid staff, and purchase more food than received as donations. Lack of healthy food in the hunger relief system was a barrier to foodshelves implementing policies.