Strategies and Experiences in Food Banks, Food Insecurity, and Health: A Mixed-Methods Investigation

Abstract

Food insecurity is a prevalent and persistent issue that affects communities across Canada. Food banks are currently one of the most common responses to food insecurity in the country. Since they emerged in the 1980s, food banks have proliferated across Canada and the number of people accessing them has risen steeply. While food banks have faced criticisms in their capacity to address food insecurity, there have been shifts in how they operate over recent years. There are a growing number of examples of food banks that changed the types of food that they distribute and the programs and services that they offer on location. However, there is little evidence to explore the impact of shifting food bank operations. In a series of three studies, this dissertation explored operational characteristics and strategies of food banks, experiences with accessing food banks, and associations between food bank access and food insecurity, as well as related dietary and health outcomes. The first study employed a qualitative methodology to examine staff and volunteer perspectives on the strategies that food banks have adopted and adapted to address the needs of the people that they serve and the factors that enable or impede change. The findings illustrate current food banking practices and revealed examples of how food bank operations have changed over recent years to endeavor to better address the needs of the people who access their services. Moreover, the results illuminate food bank efforts to raise awareness and advocate for policy change to better address issues of poverty and food insecurity. The second study used qualitative data collected at two time points, six months apart, to explore experiences of food insecurity and food bank access among people who access them. While there was variation in the social and emotional experiences of accessing food banks, a common theme of long-term and regular access due to constrained financial resources arose in the data. The third study was a quantitative investigation of the associations between the operational characteristics of food banks and changes in food insecurity, diet, and health over a six month period. Results indicated that accessing a food bank that employed a choice model of food distribution was significantly associated with increased fruit and vegetable consumption over the study period. Accessing a food bank integrated within a community resource centre was significantly associated with reporting less severe food insecurity at six months compared to baseline. The findings presented in this dissertation offer novel evidence to elucidate the shifting operations of food banks and the associations between food banking operational characteristics and food insecurity over time. Moreover, these findings may inform decisions to change or adapt food banking operations to better address the needs of the people and communities served. Food banks, though they do not address the root causes of food insecurity, are established community resources, and thus, serve as strategic access points for not only short-term food assistance but also for connecting people with services and advocating for food security and poverty reduction.