Find Healthy Here
Find Healthy Here is a collection of resources and best practices for food distribution programs (ie: food pantries, food distribution sites, food markets, etc). Find Healthy Here resources help food distribution programs establish health as a shared value of the community by increasing healthy food procurement, selection, and consumption, giving everyone in the community the opportunity to access high quality healthy foods.
Why Does Find Healthy Here Matter?
Food distribution programs are the main source of food for some families in our communities. Food is a basic need for families and children — a basic need that communities can help provide when fellow community members need assistance. Everyone deserves to have this basic need met with access to high quality healthy foods. Providing healthy foods at food pantries and distribution programs can decrease chronic disease, reduce health care costs for communities, increase brain development and learning for children and enable a dignifying experience for individuals and families seeking food assistance.
Food Pantry/Distribution assessments completed in one city in Nebraska revealed that, overall, pantries lack healthy food access. The best score that a pantry could receive on the assessment is a 133 and the average score of the pantries in this community was 53. 63 was the high score and 42 was the low. On average, pantries are only reaching about 40% of the best practices to be considered a ‘healthy pantry’ that is striving to establish health as a shared value of the community and ensure that everyone in the community has the opportunity to access healthy foods.
Creating Healthy Communities: Healthy Food Access through Food Pantries
Check out these Nebraska-specific videos on how and why to build healthy food pantries. Click on the interactive map for SNAP-Ed PSE and navigate to the “Shop: Food Pantries” button on the Cafe.
Food Pantry Self-Assessment
Complete a food pantry self-assessment to gain insight on healthy food pantry practices. Take whichever assessment best relates to the food pantry. There is no right or wrong or judgement to these assessments. Consider the self-assessment as a starting point and a way to simply gain information about your pantry and hold a mirror up to better see the food pantry practices. The information gained can be reflected on and then used to set incremental, personalized goals to move the food pantry towards healthier practices.