Healthy food initiatives in food pantries

There is some evidence that food pantries and food banks that use healthy food initiatives increase fruit and vegetable consumption, improve diet quality, and increase food security for clients more than traditional food pantries and banks (Stahacz 2024, Oldroyd 2022, An 2019, Grabow 2020, Cochrane-Martin 2018, Wilson 2017b). Available evidence associates such initiatives with a significant increase in fresh fruit and vegetable distribution through food pantries (Long 2019), and when implemented as intended, with improved quality of foods available and selected by pantry clients (Oldroyd 2022, Caspi 2019). However, additional evidence is needed to confirm effects especially over the long-term (An 2019).

Food security and diet quality. Food pantry initiatives that use client choice distribution models and connect people with additional social services on-site are the most effective for improving food security and diet quality, especially among households with children (Stahacz 2024). Food pantry initiatives that provide nutrition education and recipe demonstrations can increase the variety of fruits and vegetables and the amount of produce clients consume, and can improve nutrition knowledge, home cooking skills and habits, and food security status (Wanyahka 2025, An 2019, Eicher-Miller 2020, Keller-Olaman 2005). Program evaluations of comprehensive healthy food initiatives that include a client choice model with a variety of featured healthy food options, connections to community resources and services, a respectful and welcoming environment, and on-site opportunities for clients to build skills are associated with significant improvements in food security, self-sufficiency, and diet quality over time (Cochrane-Martin 2018).

Healthy food selection. Food banks and pantries with healthy food initiatives that use client choice models for food selection and tailor messaging, recipes, and food tips for their clients appear to have greater effects on healthy eating decisions and vegetable use than generic messaging and food tips (Clarke 2011). Food pantry-based nutrition education programs that include cooking classes and gift cards have greater increases in produce consumption, especially fresh fruit, among food pantry clients (Wanyahka 2025). A New York state-based food pantry study shows low cost food nudges through display arrangement and placement changes can increase healthy food selection (Wilson 2017b). One Utah-based study suggests food pantry healthy food nudge programs may improve dietary choices, with the largest effects reported among Hispanic survey respondents (Coombs 2020). A New England-based study shows that food banks’ use of nutrition ranking systems increased food pantries’ ordering of the healthiest items (Martin 2021d). However, a Boston-based study shows no significant changes in food pantry ordering from food banks after implementing a food nudge program, although researchers suggest that may be due to high baseline healthy food ordering at the food pantry level and may not reflect changes in client selections (Jia 2023). A Connecticut-based study suggests ingredient bundles with recipe tastings may increase the likelihood that food pantry clients select healthier food options more than tastings alone (Stein 2019). Healthy food display interventions can help food pantry clients select healthier food items (An 2019) and may improve diets among people who are food insecure (Grabow 2020). In a rural Missouri case study, healthy food initiatives at food pantries are associated with improved healthy food access and food choices, as well as increased gardening knowledge, support, and resources (Chapman 2017).

Climate benefits. Healthy food initiatives in food pantries that include gleaning, farm, or garden donations can reduce waste and increase the availability of local, seasonal produce for participants, which may reduce emissions from fossil fuels used to produce, process, and transport food (Ringling 2020, FAO-Food waste, Hic 2016, Stone 2021, CCAFS-Campbell 2012). Food banks and food pantries can provide healthy food by rescuing food and preventing food waste, which reduces hunger and helps the environment. Every year 92 billion pounds of surplus food is produced in the U.S. and uneaten food in landfills produces 8% of global carbon emissions (FA-Morello 2025, FA-Food waste). Healthy food initiatives in food pantries may also reduce the energy intensity of an individual’s diet if more plant-based foods are consumed in place of animal products (Ringling 2020). In a Rhode Island-based study, food pantry clients participating in a plant-based cooking and nutrition education program and preparing meatless recipes at home 2-3 meals per week, improved weight status and reduced total food costs (Flynn 2013).

Partnerships to expand services. Food banks and health care providers can partner to provide Food is Medicine programs, which expand access to healthy foods for people experiencing food insecurity with diet-related chronic diseases (Houghtaling 2025). Pilot studies of partnerships between food banks and health care providers show increased access to healthy foods, improved diet, and improved food security among participants, especially with produce deliveries and home-based cooking instruction, which reduces transportation and participation burdens (Ferrer 2019). Food pantry boxes that include health care information can improve food security for people with diabetes (Seligman 2022).

Policy reforms. Experts recommend several policy reforms at the local, state, and federal level to support healthy food initiatives in food pantries and increase availability and consumption of healthy foods (Friedman 2021a). Three policy reforms appear to have the greatest effects: strengthening nutrition standards and quality for federal food assistance programs, implementing or strengthening farm-to-food bank programs, and implementing state-level organic waste bans to encourage donation and use of fresh produce (Friedman 2021a).

Best practices. Successful healthy food initiatives are most often found in food pantries or food banks that have written nutrition guidelines, client choice distribution models, and adequate refrigerator storage (Long 2020). Building a healthier food inventory, enhancing partner agency access, storage, and distribution capacity for fresh foods, developing nutrition education, and expanding community partnerships and settings for healthy food distribution are key components for healthy food initiatives at food banks (Wetherill 2019). Establishing strong nutrition policies at food banks is a suggested strategy to improve the nutritional quality of food distributed; however, such changes have the potential to alter relationships with existing donors, possibly reducing the total amount of food available for distribution (Handforth 2013). Experts suggest establishing new metrics to measure the success of food pantries that are based on healthy food items and the nutritional quality of food provided (Mossenson 2023). Comprehensive healthy food initiatives that include partnerships with health care and nutrition professionals, health screenings, social service coordination, and assistance applying for federal benefits are suggested to further support and stabilize food pantry clients experiencing crises and insecurity (Urban-Gupta 2025, Urban-Martinchek 2020).

Challenges. Interviews with food bank and food pantry personnel suggest that challenges to adopting healthy food initiatives include the procurement, handling, and monitoring of large quantities of perishable foods (Campbell 2013), as well as limited staffing and other resources (An 2019). Such interviews also suggest food pantry clients may benefit from nonjudgmental nutrition guidance; however, some clients may have other reasons not to choose healthy foods, for example, transportation challenges, lack of cooking equipment, or lack of funds for secondary ingredients needed to cook fresh produce (Cooksey-Stowers 2018, Wanyahka 2025). Available literature identifies more challenges to implementing healthy food initiatives in food banks and food pantries, including dependence on unpredictable and variable donations, fear of losing donors if unhealthy inventory is reduced, and that the typical metric of success is simply measured in pounds of food provided (Mossenson 2023).

Costs. The cost of healthy food initiatives varies; some are very low cost and relatively straightforward to implement, such as healthy food display interventions (Grabow 2020). Experts suggest that implementing a standard nutrition system with three tiers to identify food items in food pantries is a highly cost-effective and time-efficient intervention to improve healthy food availability and selection (Levi 2022).

Healthy food initiatives in food pantries are a suggested strategy to decrease disparities in healthy food access, diet quality, and food security between people experiencing poverty and people with higher incomes, according to experts and the program’s targeted design (Oldroyd 2022, Friedman 2021a, Dubowitz 2021). Comprehensive healthy food initiatives can support food justice efforts by increasing dignified access to nutritious, culturally relevant food and shifting the dominant narrative away from blaming individuals for experiencing hunger and food insecurity towards understanding the structural factors that shape food insecurity (Bragg 2025).

Systemic racism and discrimination have created communities where people of color, especially Black and Hispanic households, experience food insecurity at much higher rates than white households (Bragg 2025, Friedman 2021a, Brookings-George 2021). Food insecurity rates are disproportionately high among households experiencing poverty and single-mother households compared to their counterparts (Brookings-George 2021). Available evidence shows that over 25% of U.S. military personnel and their families with lower incomes experience food insecurity (RAND-Asch 2023). Food insecurity rates vary across and within geographic regions; as of 2022, available data shows food insecurity affecting 14.7% of households in rural areas and 15.3% of households in urban areas (Dave 2024). In rural Appalachia communities have much higher rates of food insecurity than national averages and Central Appalachia has the highest rates of food insecurity in the Appalachian region (Grier-Welch 2021, ARC-Food insecurity 2023). Many urban areas have high food insecurity rates, for example, in the Bronx, New York, 31% of residents experience food insecurity and 37% of children experience food insecurity (Ginsberg 2019). People’s experience of food insecurity, poor health, and using food pantries for emergency supplies is often cyclical, where unhealthy, non-nutritious food supplies increase poor health outcomes and poor health increases the need for assistance from food pantries (Oldroyd 2022). Experts suggest implementing comprehensive healthy food initiatives in food pantries to help break this cycle and improve and strengthen emergency food aid (Oldroyd 2022, Dubowitz 2021, Friedman 2021a).

The nutritional quality of food available from food pantries often does not meet the cultural, health, or food security needs of clients (Oldroyd 2022). Healthy food initiatives are needed to improve the variety and availability of fresh produce, provide appropriate foods for multiple health conditions, support cultural relevance of food items, reduce diet-related health inequalities, and reduce stigma associated with food pantry use (Oldroyd 2022). People relying on food pantries experience high rates of diabetes, heart conditions, diet-related diseases, depressive symptoms, and food insecurity (Eicher-Miller 2020). Available data show food pantry clients have low quality diets, which do not meet U.S. dietary guidelines for 16 key nutrients (Eicher-Miller 2020).

People with low incomes and people with disabilities have many barriers to using food pantries, including limited transportation, limited food pantry hours and schedule conflicts, lack of information, and feelings of stigma (Urban-Gupta 2025). Experts suggest that healthy food initiatives to reduce food insecurity-related stigma can increase participation in food assistance programs (Halverson 2026, Appel 2025). Interventions to reduce stigma in food pantry settings include structural changes, for example, implementing client choice models to create an experience similar to shopping and using technology like an EBT card (Appel 2025). Initiatives to improve communication, signs, and messaging can also reduce stigma. Messaging can help change negative narratives about food pantry use, away from food pantry use as a sign of weakness and towards positive views of food pantry use as caring for one’s family (Appel 2025). Interpersonal strategies, such as training for staff and volunteers interacting with food pantry clients, can improve understanding of the experience of food insecurity and reduce negative stigma experiences for food pantry clients (Appel 2025). Many food pantries in urban areas report that the need is greater than the amount of food available; healthy food initiatives may help food pantries better meet the need for a variety of quality, culturally relevant foods (Ginsberg 2019).

In the U.S., the charitable food system is a complex, hub-and-spoke network of regional food banks that supply food pantries and community meal locations (Levi 2022, FBN-About). Food pantries and soup kitchens began as a short-term solution in response to emergencies, that operated in community centers or church basements (FBN-About). The first modern food bank started in 1967 when John Van Hengel, a volunteer in a Phoenix-area soup kitchen, secured a warehouse to store still edible food that a grocery store was throwing away, because it had been deemed unfit for sale (FBN-About). The resulting food bank and food pantry system grew slowly, until the 1980s, when the Reagan Administration shrank the federal safety net, which created an immediate need (Maxwell 2024, FBN-About). The charitable food system stepped up to fill that need, but instead of being a short-term solution, hunger for millions of people became the accepted standard and regional food banks supplying local food pantries became the everyday system (FBN-About, Maxwell 2024).

Congress has created many policies that address food and nutrition in the U.S., based on both agriculture industry interests and anti-hunger efforts for people with low incomes. For example, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has its origin in temporary food stamp programs designed to alleviate hunger while also creating a market for food supplies deemed to be surplus by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (SNAP-History). Available research identifies 42 federal and 253 state laws and regulations addressing the charitable food system; however, less than 15% of those laws and regulations prioritize healthy, nutritious food donations (Friedman 2021a).

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted many problems with the U.S. social safety net, especially for food security, because it increased unemployment rates, ended access to school meals, and disrupted food supply chains (Brookings-George 2021). Between February and May 2020, food insecurity rates doubled among all U.S. households, while food insecurity rates for households with children tripled (Brookings-George 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity increased disproportionately among people experiencing poverty, especially Black and Latino households living in food deserts (Dubowitz 2021, Siddiqi 2021).

The Trump Administration signed H.R. 1 into law on July 4, 2025, cutting an estimated $187 billion of funding from SNAP over the next ten years. As of 2026, over 4 million Americans have already lost access to federal nutrition assistance, with more reductions in SNAP participation expected (CSPI-Fielding-Singh 2026). SNAP-Ed programming has also been eliminated. In 2024, SNAP-Ed provided 1.2 million people with nutrition education, cooking classes, budgeting assistance, and physical activity opportunities (CSPI-Fielding-Singh 2026). These massive cuts affect the rest of the food safety net and make it more difficult for people to access food and needed social support services (CSPI-Fielding-Singh 2026). The populations most affected by these changes include children, older adults, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, immigrant families, rural communities, and communities with the highest rates of diet-related disease (CSPI-Fielding-Singh 2026). In states that report age-specific data, the data shows that over 776,000 children have already lost SNAP benefits as of June 2026 (CSPI-Fielding-Singh 2026). Although food banks and food pantries have seen large increases in demand, the emergency food supply has been insufficient to meet that demand. Making the situation worse, in 2025 the USDA cut $1 billion from the budget for local food purchasing for food banks and schools and an additional $500 million from the budget for commodity food purchases for food banks (CSPI-Fielding-Singh 2026).

Most Americans do not meet the recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables for a healthy diet; as of 2019, only 3% of U.S. adults consume the daily recommended servings of fruits and only 10% consume the daily recommended servings of vegetables (Brooks 2023, CDC MMWR-Lee 2022). Low levels of fruit and vegetable consumption are associated with increased risk of chronic diseases and mortality (Karpyn 2022, Cafer 2023), while adequate fresh fruit and vegetable consumption as part of a healthy diet reduces the risk of many chronic diseases (Haslam 2022). In recent years, there have been increased efforts to provide more healthy, nutritious food items as part of the charitable food system (Levi 2022). Healthy food initiatives at food pantries and food banks evolved to include fresh produce and nutritious food items, as well as nutrition education, social services, healthcare screenings, and broad efforts to both feed people who are hungry and address the root causes of hunger (Levi 2022, FBN-About). However, federal policy after H.R. 1 reduces food assistance, eliminates nutrition and physical activity education, and makes the goals of healthy food initiatives in food pantries difficult – if not impossible – to achieve (CSPI-Fielding-Singh 2026).

• What healthy food initiatives in food pantries are available to people in your community? How can your community support components of these initiatives? Establishing client choice models? Increasing healthy food inventory? Enhancing culturally relevant healthy food options? Developing nutrition education programs? Providing stigma-reducing training opportunities for staff and volunteers?
• Who decides what healthy food initiatives will be implemented in local food pantries? How is program funding determined and allocated? What efforts are underway to support people who have lost federal nutrition assistance in your community?
• How accessible are local food pantries in terms of location, public transportation options, and hours of operation? What partnerships or initiatives could increase accessibility?
• What organizations (e.g., farmers markets, grocery stores, farms, food distributors) in your community would partner with food banks and pantries to increase access to a variety of fresh produce for food pantry clients?

Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization with over 250 member food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs nationwide, is one organization working nationally to increase healthy foods distributed through food banks (FA-Our work). Feeding America operates mobile food pantries to bring healthy foods to families in underserved areas and the Produce Matchmaker program that connects growers directly with food banks to donate surplus, fresh produce (FA-Hunger relief). Feeding America’s network of food banks and food pantries has saved 4 billion pounds of food from becoming waste in landfills (FA-Food waste). Feeding America also has a partnership with Elevance Health Foundation to support “food as medicine” connections between food banks and healthcare providers, providing healthy food, nutrition prescriptions, and culturally relevant foods to clients (FA-Food as medicine). The Food is Medicine Coalition is building a national network of nonprofits, including food banks and food pantries, to expand medically-tailored nutrition interventions (FIM-Coalition).

Farm to Food Bank, Farm to Food Pantry, and Farmers Ending Hunger programs are in place in many states, including Connecticut (CFB-Farm donations), Georgia (GFBA-FTFB), Kentucky (KAFB-FTFB), Maryland (MFB-FTFB), Oregon (FEH-Oregon), and Rhode Island (RI Food Bank-Community farms). Some states offer growers a tax credit for donations of excess produce to state-sponsored food banks, as in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon (NRDC-Gunders 2012), Iowa (IA DOR-FTFD tax credit), and Kentucky (KAFB-FTFB). Procuring food from local farms for food bank and food pantry programs also increases food and climate justice; for example, the Oregon Food Bank procures local food to promote land stewardship, preserve traditional food systems, support community growers, and increase access to sustainable and ethically produced food that benefits people and the planet (OFB-Hunger and climate change 2024).

Many food banks use farming, gardening, gleaning, and other healthy food programs to procure fresh produce and support healthy eating for their clients, as in Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona in Tucson (CFBSA-Programs), Chester County Food Bank in Pennsylvania (CCFB-Programs), Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh, North Carolina (IFFS-Food bank), and Santa Barbara County Food Bank (SBCFB-Programs). Ample Harvest, a non-profit organization, helps home and community gardeners donate their excess produce to over 8,500 food pantries in all 50 states (Ample Harvest-Garden donations). The Missouri Department of Agriculture supports the Grow & Give program part of the 10,000 Garden Challenge, which encourages home and community gardens to donate a portion of their produce to local food banks and pantries (MDA-Grow and give 2011).

Many food pantries have implemented more comprehensive healthy food initiatives. For example, the More Than Food initiative supports systems change in the charitable food network and builds capacity for food banks and food pantries to offer client choice, connections with community services, supports to reach their goals, and a welcoming environment (More Than Food). The Fresh Start program at the Kelly Center for Hunger Relief in El Paso, Texas also provides healthy food assistance, health and well-being classes, and case management services to address the root causes of hunger and overcome barriers to personal and financial independence (Fresh Start). The BUILD Health model in Dallas, Texas is enhancing food pantries with new sites for community food distribution that also provide access to healthcare and wraparound services; BUILD Health also uses community engagement throughout the project development process and seeks community feedback about which health services to include (BHC-Dallas).

The Northern Illinois Food Bank’s My Pantry Express program uses technology to provide client choice, the convenience of online ordering with delivery or pick up options, and a dignified experience to increase access to healthy foods and reduce stigma (Urban-Fiol 2023).

Researchers have developed assessment tools for food banks to evaluate their policy, systems, and environmental changes to promote healthy foods, such as the Food Bank Health and Nutrition Assessment (FB-HANA) tool (Nguyen 2023).

‡ Resources with a focus on equity.

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Fresh Start - Fresh Start. Fresh Start program at Kelly Memorial Food Pantry in El Paso, Texas.

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IA DOR-FTFD tax credit - Iowa Department of Revenue (IA DOR). Farm to food donation (FTFD) tax credit.

IFFS-Food bank - Inter-Faith Food Shuttle (IFFS). A food bank pioneering innovative, transformative solutions to end hunger: We feed, we teach, we grow.

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