{"title":"Required informational barriers to accessing groceries from food banks","authors":"Alexis Millerschultz, Lawton Lanier Nalley, Brandon McFadden, Rodolfo Nayga, Wei Yang","doi":"10.1007/s12571-024-01516-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Requirements to obtain groceries from a food pantry (e.g., forms of identification) can create potential “documentation barriers” to participation. A more holistic understanding of potential barriers are obtaining assistance from food pantries, specifically in the United States of America (USA), is warranted due to inflation in food prices, reduction of enhanced COVID-related SNAP benefits, and the increased demand for food pantry participation. In May of 2022, a survey was administered to low-income households across the USA that received groceries from a food pantry the previous month. Food pantry participants were asked which pieces of information were required to obtain groceries during their food pantry visit, including requirements to provide a home address, place of employment, Social Security Card, driver’s license, household size, blood test, and an “other” option in case they were asked to provide something beyond the previous requirements listed. On average, respondents were asked to provide 2.4 pieces of information (out of seven) when visiting a food pantry. Results indicated that 56% of African Americans had to provide their Social Security Card, which was significantly higher than the 21% of White food pantry participants, and requiring a Social Security Card is one of the most significant known barriers to obtaining food assistance. Further, probit model results indicated that the groups most susceptible to being food insecure (e.g., minorities, females, and SNAP-using individuals) were between 11 and 28% more likely to experience more documentation barriers to accessing groceries from a food pantry.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":567,"journal":{"name":"Food Security","volume":"17 1","pages":"9 - 25"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12571-024-01516-2.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Food Security","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-024-01516-2","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Requirements to obtain groceries from a food pantry (e.g., forms of identification) can create potential “documentation barriers” to participation. A more holistic understanding of potential barriers are obtaining assistance from food pantries, specifically in the United States of America (USA), is warranted due to inflation in food prices, reduction of enhanced COVID-related SNAP benefits, and the increased demand for food pantry participation. In May of 2022, a survey was administered to low-income households across the USA that received groceries from a food pantry the previous month. Food pantry participants were asked which pieces of information were required to obtain groceries during their food pantry visit, including requirements to provide a home address, place of employment, Social Security Card, driver’s license, household size, blood test, and an “other” option in case they were asked to provide something beyond the previous requirements listed. On average, respondents were asked to provide 2.4 pieces of information (out of seven) when visiting a food pantry. Results indicated that 56% of African Americans had to provide their Social Security Card, which was significantly higher than the 21% of White food pantry participants, and requiring a Social Security Card is one of the most significant known barriers to obtaining food assistance. Further, probit model results indicated that the groups most susceptible to being food insecure (e.g., minorities, females, and SNAP-using individuals) were between 11 and 28% more likely to experience more documentation barriers to accessing groceries from a food pantry.
期刊介绍:
Food Security is a wide audience, interdisciplinary, international journal dedicated to the procurement, access (economic and physical), and quality of food, in all its dimensions. Scales range from the individual to communities, and to the world food system. We strive to publish high-quality scientific articles, where quality includes, but is not limited to, the quality and clarity of text, and the validity of methods and approaches.
Food Security is the initiative of a distinguished international group of scientists from different disciplines who hold a deep concern for the challenge of global food security, together with a vision of the power of shared knowledge as a means of meeting that challenge. To address the challenge of global food security, the journal seeks to address the constraints - physical, biological and socio-economic - which not only limit food production but also the ability of people to access a healthy diet.
From this perspective, the journal covers the following areas:
Global food needs: the mismatch between population and the ability to provide adequate nutrition
Global food potential and global food production
Natural constraints to satisfying global food needs:
§ Climate, climate variability, and climate change
§ Desertification and flooding
§ Natural disasters
§ Soils, soil quality and threats to soils, edaphic and other abiotic constraints to production
§ Biotic constraints to production, pathogens, pests, and weeds in their effects on sustainable production
The sociological contexts of food production, access, quality, and consumption.
Nutrition, food quality and food safety.
Socio-political factors that impinge on the ability to satisfy global food needs:
§ Land, agricultural and food policy
§ International relations and trade
§ Access to food
§ Financial policy
§ Wars and ethnic unrest
Research policies and priorities to ensure food security in its various dimensions.