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| Name | Class |
|---|---|
| Greater Boston Food Bank | UNKNOWN |
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This study is a pilot evaluation of the Healthy Pantry Program, a new behavioral economics-based training that allows pantry staff to learn how to implement nudges integrating traffic-light nutrition labeling and a healthy recipe database in the pantry environment. The hypothesis is that participation the Healthy Pantry Program will lead to increases in pantry purchases of healthy foods.
Food insecurity affects more than one in 10 Americans and is associated with poor nutrition and adverse health outcomes, including diabetes, hypertension, and mental health issues. Many food-insecure individuals use food pantries, which provide charitable food, to supplement household food needs. The emergence of client-choice food pantries, where individuals can select the foods they take home, provides a novel opportunity to intervene on the diets of food pantry clients.
This study evaluates the Healthy Pantry Program (HPP) in a sample of 10 food pantries in the greater Boston area. Pantries will be matched on baseline characteristics and randomized 1:1 into participation in HPP (intervention) or wait list (control). Outcomes data will be collected at the pantry and client level. The aims of the study are as follows:
Aim 1: To evaluate whether HPP is associated with increased healthy food purchases from the food bank by intervention food pantries compared to control food pantries.
Aim 2: To evaluate whether HPP is associated with increases in the availability of healthy food in intervention food pantries compared to control food pantries.
Aim 3: To evaluate whether HPP is associated with an increase in healthy food selection and dietary intake by clients of intervention food pantries compared to clients of control food pantries, using a cross-sectional sample of 400 food pantry clients at baseline and 400 food pantry clients at 6-month follow up.
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| Label | Type | Description | Intervention Names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intervention Food Pantries | Experimental | Food pantries will complete online training to help them rank foods by nutritional value and promote those foods to pantry clients; the effect on pantries and their clients will be measured. |
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| Control Food Pantries | Active Comparator | Food pantries will continue to operate as usual during the study period; the effect on pantries and their clients will be measured. |
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| Name | Type | Description | Arm Group Labels | Other Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthy Pantry Program | Behavioral | Food pantries will receive the Healthy Pantry Program online training, which will be completed by at least one pantry staff member and teaches pantry staff a novel traffic-light nutrition labeling system, a multilingual healthy recipe database, and how to use those and other behavioral economic strategies to implement simple interventions in the food pantry to promote client selection of healthier options. Onsite support by a registered dietitian is included. |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly change in proportion of green-labeled foods purchased by food pantries from the food bank | Monthly change from baseline values of healthier foods purchased by pantries from the food bank in the proportion of green-labeled foods. | Collected from the electronic ordering system at baseline and prospectively each month for 9 months |
| Monthly change in the Healthy Purchasing Score of foods purchased by food pantries from the food bank | Monthly change from baseline values of healthier foods purchased by pantries from the food bank in a weighted Healthy Purchasing Score that includes all foods (range: 0-1, higher scores represent healthier selection) | Collected from the electronic ordering system at baseline and prospectively each month for 9 months |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Change in food availability at food pantries | Change from baseline in food availability score using the Healthy Food Pantry Assessment Tool (range: 0-45, higher scores represent greater food availability) | Assessed at baseline and 6 months |
| Change in healthier food selection by pantry clients |
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Pantry Inclusion Criteria:
Pantry Exclusion Criteria:
Client Inclusion Criteria (for cross-sectional surveys at baseline and 6-month follow up):
Client Exclusion Criteria:
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| Facility | Status | City | State | ZIP | Country | Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts General Hospital | Boston | Massachusetts | 02114 | United States |
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| Waitlist Control | Other | Normal food pantry use for duration of the 9-month study period. Control pantries will have access to the Healthy Pantry Program after study is completed. |
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Change from baseline in pantry basket inventories of pantry clients measured by the proportion of green-labeled foods for each basket |
| Assessed at baseline and 6 months |
| Change in healthier food selection by pantry clients | Change from baseline in pantry basket inventories of pantry clients measured by Healthy Purchasing Score for each basket (range: 0-1, higher scores represent healthier selection) | Assessed at baseline and 6 months |
| Change in self-reported fruit and vegetable intake of pantry clients | Change from baseline fruit and vegetable intake in cup equivalents measured by the Dietary Screener from the California Health Information Survey 2005 | Assessed at baseline and 6 months |
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D005518 | Food Preferences |
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D005247 | Feeding Behavior |
| D001519 | Behavior |
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