Food bank member agencies’ orders change after implementation of culturally responsive labels and procuring practices

Abstract

The charitable food system serves an estimated one in seven adults in the U.S. (Feeding America, 2024). In many cases, this system is made up of a food bank (an organization with centralized procure­ment, management, and delivery systems) that in turn supplies local food agencies (food pantries) with a portion of their inventory. A common con­cern in food pantries is that they may not offer culturally appro­priate foods to their clients. Initia­tives at the food bank level provide opportunities to improve the cultural relevance of foods available in the charita­ble food system. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether agencies were more likely to order culturally responsive foods (e.g., foods procured to align with cultural groups’ traditions or norms), and a greater number of unique culturally responsive items, after imple­menting procurement practices and labels in a central food bank’s online ordering system. A one-group pre- and post-test natural experiment util­ized three 45-day phases: (1) Baseline: no changes to the ordering system; (2) Labeling: the introduc­tion of labels in the ordering system to identify culturally responsive items; and (3) Procuring: introduction of foods procured to be culturally responsive to Eastern European and Hispanic/ Latinx clientele. Data from a central food bank based in Rochester, New York, included 31,958 items in 720 orders made by 274 unique member agencies (e.g., food pantries, soup kitch­ens, group homes) from January 16–May 31, 2024. The proportion of orders with culturally responsive items increased during the labeling (OR = 4.79, SE = 1.40, p < 0.0001) and procuring phases (OR = 19.96, SE = 7.16, p < 0.0001) when compared to the baseline phase. The proportion of culturally responsive items within agencies’ orders also increased during the labeling (β = 0.23, SE = 0.099, p = 0.019) and procuring phases (β = 0.81, SE = 0.092, p < 0.0001) in comparison to the baseline phase. Results suggest that culturally responsive initiatives taken at the food bank level can affect the foods ordered to be available in community-facing programs. Additional research can build on these findings to better align foods with commu­nity needs and address household food insecurity.