Integrating nutrition and physical activity education into a food pantry

In 2010, about one out of 20 households utilized food pantry assistance one or more times. With over 40,000 pantries in the US, this presents an opportunity to address the high prevalence of household food insecurity while simultaneously promoting healthful eating and exercise habits in low‐income communities. The objective of this project is to implement nutrition and physical activity education in the Helping Hands Pantry, a center that provides groceries to over 7,000 people each week. As individual clients waited to receive food, healthy food samples were distributed by nutrition students to draw clients’ attention to the nutrition education display in the waiting room. University nutrition students provided adults with nutrition information, meal planning, and exercising tips and children were given nutrition‐related coloring sheets. Through conducting oral assessments, authors found that many children lacked proper knowledge in nutrition and many adults seemed to know about nutrition, but discounted the importance of exercise. Authors found that targeting educational interventions at food pantries to individual clients is a promising strategy. To promote sustainability and effectiveness, pantry volunteers can be trained to implement the nutrition education interventions described above on a frequent basis.