Improving the Nutritional Quality of Foods Distributed to Lower-Income Families through Emergency Food Services: Report

"Improving the Nutritional Quality of Foods Distributed to Lower-Income Families through Emergency Food Services: A study of nutrition-related policies and practices of food banks and food pantries" reports on two recent trends in the US—widespread food insecurity among families and the rising prevalence of obesity in both adults and children. These issues have focused attention upon the role that can and/or should be played by nutrition-based choices in the activities of emergency food services. The national network of food banks, food pantries and other emergency food distributors, many of them linked in the Feeding America network, has acknowledged that consideration of the nutritional value of the foods it delivers is justified. To support the food distribution network’s attention to nutritional concerns and to identify problems or challenges and potential solutions, several linked studies were undertaken in 2011 by the Atkins Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley, in alliance with California Food Policy Advocates.