Health, Nutrition, and Food Pantries

 

VS

At Stone Soup Kitchen's food pantry, we offer the following: 

• Regular pantry bags with some whole foods and some processed foods
• Healthier alternative pantry bags with ingredients rather than processed foods
• Meal-starter bags with ingredients and recipes
• Fresh produce, year-round
• Classes and workshops on health, nutrition, and cooking

The problem:

• Guess what never gets left behind in our returns box?  The processed foods
• Very few people want the healthier alternative bags
• Only those same few people want the meal-starter bags
• Not everyone takes the fresh produce
• The classes and workshops are fun, but don't seem to lead to lasting change

The reasons:

• Differences in cost and availability of healthy foods
• Inexperience with whole foods and cooking them
• Addiction to the ultra-processed foods' additives

Solutions?

• Realize that our mission is primarily hunger, not nutrition or health, although these are extremely important to continue working on
• Continue to make the healthier alternatives and classes available, realizing that it will do little more than make us feel better
• Realize that we have to allow it to make us feel better while still looking for more options