Healthy Food and Nutrition Offerings at Midwestern Food Pantries: Assessing Organizational Culture, Capacity, and Practices

Food pantries differ in terms of their commitment to, capacity for, and practices in support of healthy eating options and nutrition programming for food pantry users. We assess these differences in a sample of 476 food pantries in the Midwestern United States. Using survey data collected in 2021 from food pantry directors, we find high support for offering healthy food options at pantries, although there are some pantry infrastructure and staff attitudinal barriers to offering more nutritious food. Finally, we find a limited set of common practices related to offering healthy food and nutrition education at pantries.