Dataset Information

Brazilian Food Banks: Overview and Perspectives.

ABSTRACT: In recent decades food banks have become a worldwide response to the contradicting the coexistence of food losses and waste, on the one hand, and hunger and food insecurity on the other. In Brazil, food banks had a rapid expansion, becoming the object of public policy on Food and Nutrition Security and of non-profit private institutions. Our study presents an unprecedented overview of all the food banks currently active in the Brazilian territory, discussing their performances and perspectives. We conducted descriptive research, aiming to characterize the number, spatial distribution, performance, and modalities of operation of the Brazilian food banks. We mapped 217 active food banks and they all participated in the study. The results revealed the important capillarity of the food banks, which exist in all 27 Brazilian federative units, but also demonstrate the potential and need for expansion. Most of the Brazilian food banks has commercial establishments as their largest donor partners and have fruits and vegetables as their most donated items. They mostly complement the feeding of families at social risk and children served by social institutions. Food and nutrition education actions are offered by all the studied units to donor partners and beneficiary institutions and families.

SUBMITTER: Tenuta N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8657059 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Brazilian Food Banks: Overview and Perspectives.

Tenuta Natalia N Barros Thaís T Teixeira Romero Alves RA Paes-Sousa Rômulo R

International journal of environmental research and public health 20211129 23

In recent decades food banks have become a worldwide response to the contradicting the coexistence of food losses and waste, on the one hand, and hunger and food insecurity on the other. In Brazil, food banks had a rapid expansion, becoming the object of public policy on Food and Nutrition Security and of non-profit private institutions. Our study presents an unprecedented overview of all the food banks currently active in the Brazilian territory, discussing their performances and perspectives. ...[more]

PMID: 34886323

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Project description:ObjectiveFood insecurity affects millions of Americans and is associated with a range of adverse health outcomes. Food insecure individuals often obtain food from food pantries/banks, prompting health researchers to implement disease prevention/management interventions at these sites. This review examined the existing peer-reviewed research on disease prevention/management interventions implemented in food pantries/banks.DesignScoping review.Data sourcesDatabases searched included MEDLINE, Web of Science, CINAHL and Cochrane. Search strategies included Medical Subject Headings and key terms, including food pantry, food bank, food shelf, food aid and related concepts.Eligibility criteriaStudies were included if they described an intervention involving food pantries/banks where at least one biometric indicator was included as an outcome variable. Articles focused solely on the quality of foods distributed, the diet quality of food pantry/bank clients or government food aid programmes were excluded.Data extraction and synthesisExtracted data included publication details, intervention type, study design, participant characteristics, study outcomes, and barriers and facilitators of intervention implementation.ResultsA total of 3317 articles were assessed for eligibility. Six studies met the predefined inclusion criteria. The studies employed a range of intervention approaches to manage or prevent a number of chronic diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes and HIV. The studies examined a range of biometric outcomes, including body mass index, glycated haemoglobin and blood pressure. Information about the food pantries/banks where the interventions were conducted was lacking. The studies documented multiple barriers and facilitators related to costs, sustainability and organisational capacity.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first review to examine disease prevention and management interventions conducted in food pantries and food banks. Given the high number of households who obtain food from food pantries/banks and the chronic health conditions associated with food insecurity, this review highlights the need for more high-quality research in this setting.

Project description:BackgroundNongovernment food assistance is typically provided to families by faith-based organizations, schools, and food banks. Community organizations appear to be strongly committed to these programs, but little is known about the basis for this commitment.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to examine the values and identities of community organizations to understand the reasons for their commitment to providing nongovernment food assistance.MethodsThirty-three in-depth interviews were conducted with 36 leaders at faith-based organizations (19 participants), schools (14 participants), and a local food bank (3 participants) in South Carolina. Observations were made, and informational documents (e.g., flyers and pamphlets) were reviewed. Thematic coding using the constant comparative method was guided by the policy concepts of organizational perspectives, values, and identities.ResultsNongovernment food programs offered participants volunteering opportunities to become involved with community organizations, which in turn increased financial support for the sustainability of these programs. School participants regarded themselves as a mechanism through which food programs were provided because of their commitment to students and believed they have limited capacity to make proposals to influence the food programs. Seeking to improve the well-being of the community by ending hunger was not the primary value on which organizations focused; instead, it was the process of fulfilling other values (e.g., forming or maintaining relationships within the community), maintaining identity, and appealing to their participants that strengthened their commitment to nongovernment food programs.ConclusionNongovernment programs are meant to be a solution to food insecurity complementary to government programs. Commitment to nongovernment programs fulfills organizational identities, wants, and assumptions, but a consequence of commitment to food programs, derived from fulfilling other values, is that the roots of hunger in a community become obscured and alternative solutions are ignored or rejected.

Project description:IntroductionFood insecurity is a difficulty faced in many households. During periods of food insecurity, households often seek food supplied by food pantries and food banks. Food insecurity has been associated with increased risk for several health conditions. For this reason, food pantries and food banks may have great promise as intervention sites, and health researchers have begun targeting food pantries and food banks as sites for disease prevention or management interventions. The aim of the scoping review is to examine disease prevention or management interventions implemented in food pantries and food banks.Methods and analysisRelevant electronic databases (eg, MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature-CINAHL Complete, Science Citation Index, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews) will be searched for articles with a publication date of 1997 or later using Medical Subject Headings and key terms, including food aid, food banks, food pantries, food shelves, hunger, food insecurity and related concepts. For each de-duplicated study record identified by the search strategy, two reviewers will independently assess whether the study meets eligibility criteria (eg, related to intervention type, context). The reviewers will examine studies' titles, abstracts and full text, comparing eligibility decisions to address any discrepancies. For each eligible study, data extraction will be executed by two reviewers independently, comparing extracted data to address any discrepancies. Extracted data will be synthesised and reported in a narrative review assessing the coverage and gaps in existing literature related to disease prevention and management interventions implemented in food pantries.Ethics and disseminationThe review's results will be useful to healthcare practitioners who work with food-insecure populations, healthcare researchers and food pantry or food bank personnel. The results of this scoping review will be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal, and the authors will share the findings with food pantry and food bank stakeholder groups with whom they work.

Dataset Information

Brazilian Food Banks: Overview and Perspectives.

Publications

Brazilian Food Banks: Overview and Perspectives.

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