Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio.
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio.
J Acad Nutr Diet. 2024 Feb;124(2):215-224. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2023.09.007. Epub 2023 Sep 20.
Food pantries are a resource for those experiencing food insecurity.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in food pantry utilization and volunteerism for a food pantry network during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This 36-month longitudinal, observational study is a secondary analysis of data collected from an Ohio food pantry network.
PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: Participants were clients of a food pantry network. The data represent visits from 12 months prepandemic (March 2019 through February 2020), during the pandemic (March 2020 through February 2021), and after vaccines were readily available (March 2021 through February 2022).
Each data point represents a visit to the pantry network. The main outcome measures were total, returning, and new visits (ie, households that had not previously used this pantry network). The secondary outcome was volunteer hours by month.
In order to account for month-to-month variability in pantry utilization, the data were analyzed using a time-series linear regression analysis with the month as the unit of analysis.
A total of 174,397 visits were recorded during the course of 36 months. Sixty-nine percent of reporting household members were female, 48% reported at least 1 senior in the home, and 41% reported at least 1 child at home. There was no significant change in total or returning visits during the pandemic or after vaccines were available compared with prepandemic levels. However, there was a significant increase in new households to the food pantry network during the pandemic compared with prepandemic (P = .05). Volunteer hours decreased significantly during the pandemic compared with prepandemic months and remained low even after vaccines were available (P = .004 and P = .003, respectively).
Although there was an increase in households new to the food pantry, overall utilization did not increase.
食品储藏室是那些遭遇食物不安全人群的资源。
本研究旨在评估在 COVID-19 大流行期间，食品储藏室网络的食品储藏室利用和志愿服务的变化。
这是一项为期 36 个月的纵向观察性研究，是对俄亥俄州食品储藏室网络数据的二次分析。
参与者/设置：参与者是食品储藏室网络的客户。这些数据代表了在大流行前（2019 年 3 月至 2020 年 2 月）、大流行期间（2020 年 3 月至 2021 年 2 月）和疫苗广泛可用后（2021 年 3 月至 2022 年 2 月）的 12 个月的访问情况。
每个数据点代表对食品储藏室网络的一次访问。主要结果测量是总访问量、回访访问量和新访问量（即以前未使用过此食品储藏室网络的家庭）。次要结果是每月的志愿者小时数。
为了说明食品储藏室利用的逐月变化，使用时间序列线性回归分析，以月为分析单位。
在 36 个月的时间里，共记录了 174397 次访问。报告的家庭中有 69%是女性，48%报告家中至少有 1 位老年人，41%报告家中至少有 1 名儿童。与大流行前相比，在大流行期间或疫苗可用后，总访问量和回访访问量没有明显变化。然而，与大流行前相比，食品储藏室网络的新家庭数量在大流行期间显著增加（P=0.05）。与大流行前相比，大流行期间志愿者小时数显著减少，即使在疫苗可用后，志愿者小时数仍然很低（P=0.004 和 P=0.003）。
尽管有更多新家庭开始使用食品储藏室，但总体利用率并未增加。
