Department of Health Promotion, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, USA.
Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, Omaha, USA.
Transl Behav Med. 2019 Nov 25;9(6):1112-1121. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibz036.
Emergency food networks consist of food banks, food pantries, and other feeding programs. Food pantries help supplement the diets of low-income populations through direct distribution of food. There is a gap in understanding whether food pantries are adopting nutrition policies to guide food donation and distribution. Guided by the RE-AIM framework, which has been applied to public health policies, this study aimed to determine the adoption of nutrition policies at food pantries across the USA. A secondary research question was to determine if the perceived barriers that food pantries associate with distributing healthful foods differed among pantries with a formal, informal, or no policy. A cross-sectional electronic survey was distributed to a national sample of food pantry directors (N = 5,500). The response rate for the survey was 28% (n = 1,539). Survey respondents were categorized by policy and analyses were conducted to determine differences between the three groups in characteristics and perceived barriers to distributing healthful foods. Two hundred eighty-two pantries (20.9%) were identified as having a formal nutrition policy, 677 (50.2%) were determined to have an informal policy, and 389 (28.9%) had no policy. There were significant differences between mean barrier scores and policy types for 8 of the 10 barriers. More research is needed to better understand how nutrition policies affect donations and distribution of food at food pantries. Using additional RE-AIM dimensions can allow for researchers to fully understand the role these policies have on the nutritional quality of food at food pantries.
紧急食品网络包括食品银行、食品分发处和其他喂养项目。食品分发处通过直接分发食物来帮助补充低收入人群的饮食。目前人们对于食品分发处是否正在采用营养政策来指导食物捐赠和分配还存在理解上的差距。本研究以 RE-AIM 框架为指导，该框架已应用于公共卫生政策，旨在确定美国各地食品分发处营养政策的采用情况。一个次要研究问题是确定与分发健康食品相关的感知障碍是否因具有正式、非正式或无政策的分发处而有所不同。一项横断面电子调查分发给了全国范围内的食品分发处主任样本（N=5500）。该调查的回复率为 28%（n=1539）。根据政策对调查受访者进行了分类，并对具有正式、非正式或无政策的三个组之间在特征和分发健康食品的感知障碍方面的差异进行了分析。确定有 282 个分发处（20.9%）有正式的营养政策，677 个（50.2%）有非正式政策，389 个（28.9%）没有政策。在 10 个障碍中的 8 个障碍方面，平均障碍得分和政策类型之间存在显著差异。需要进一步研究以更好地了解营养政策如何影响食品分发处的食物捐赠和分配。使用其他的 RE-AIM 维度可以让研究人员充分了解这些政策对食品分发处食物营养质量的作用。
