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202 Improving the Nutritional Impact of Food Pantry Programs: Client Recipe Preferences and Kitchen Equipment Accessibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2024

Samantha Cheng
Affiliation:
UT Southwestern Medical Center School of Medicine
Ian McConnell
Affiliation:
UT Southwestern Medical Center School of Medicine
Emilie Ruiz
Affiliation:
UT Southwestern Medical Center School of Public Health
Meera Patel
Affiliation:
UT Southwestern Medical Center School of Public Health
Farra Kahalnik
Affiliation:
UT Southwestern Medical Center Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program
Heather Kitzman
Affiliation:
UT Southwestern Medical Center School of Public Health
Jaclyn Albin
Affiliation:
UT Southwestern Medical Center School of Medicine
Sarah Bailey
Affiliation:
UT Southwestern Medical Center School of Medicine
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Abstract

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OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Despite food pantries’ efforts to improve nutritional quality and encourage healthy cooking, limited evidence exists regarding pantry shoppers’ culinary preferences and kitchen equipment access. This project utilized pantry food demonstrations and samples to collect recipe and kitchen tool feedback. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: For 4 months, a Culinary Medicine team delivered food demonstrations at Crossroads Community Services food market in Dallas, Texas, which serves primarily Hispanic and Black residents. Each demo provided a food sample, corresponding printed recipe in English or Spanish, and a survey. Part 1 of the survey measured shoppers’ hedonic liking of the sampled food and their likelihood of recreating it. Part 2 used the same scale for non-sampled recipes adapted from Health meets Food Community Culinary Medicine programming. Averages of appeal and likelihood to cook between sampled and unsampled groups were compared with a student’s T test. Part 3 contained a visual graphic of 24 kitchen appliances, and shoppers circled each item they owned. Investigators collected surveys from 207 shoppers across 12 demos. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Preliminary analyses showed a positive response to the food demonstrations with a mean rating on a 5-point Likert scale of 4.58 for recipe appeal and 4.46 for likelihood of cooking the recipe at home. The Health meets Food recipes not demonstrated were also positively reviewed (4.40 for appeal and 4.32 for likelihood to cook). There was a statistically significant difference in appeal between sampled and non-sampled recipes (p = 0.03) while no significant difference was found for likelihood to cook (p = 0.08). On average, clients owned 75% of kitchen appliances with most clients owning a sauté pan (94%) but few having access to a food processor (27%). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: An effective nutrition program for food pantry clients must be accessible, culturally relevant, nourishing, and enjoyable. Providing samples alongside recipes may increase appeal and engagement. Consideration of kitchen equipment access is essential to promote recipe recreation at home.

Type
Health Equity and Community Engagement
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. The Association for Clinical and Translational Science

Footnotes

*

These two authors contributed equally to this work.