Developing a Support Application for Food Pantries (SAFPAS) to Improve Client Access to Healthy Foods & Enhance Emergency Preparedness (SAFPAS)

Developing a Support Application for Food Pantries (SAFPAS) to Improve Client Access to Healthy Foods & Enhance Emergency Preparedness

Developing a Support Application for Food Pantries (SAFPAS) to Improve Client Access to Healthy Foods & Enhance Emergency Preparedness

Food pantries face many challenges, including recruitment and training of staff/volunteers, communications with staff/volunteers and clients, providing client choice, and emergency preparedness. The investigators will develop, implement, and evaluate the Support Application for Food Pantries (SAFPAS), a mobile application to address these concerns under normal and emergency operations, and assess its impact on 20 Baltimore food pantries, and on the healthiness of foods received by 360 food pantry clients using a randomized controlled trial design. If successful, the tested and refined app will support local food assistance programs throughout the United States.

Support Application for Food PAntrieS (SAFPAS) - A mobile app that helps food pantries recruit, train and schedule volunteers, offer choice safely, and provides multilevel communications

The primary intervention is a mobile application (app) which supports food pantries to recruit, train and schedule volunteers; provide a safe, remote form of client choice; and provides a means of sharing real-time status information with clients, pantries, food banks, and emergency operation centers. Following formative work, user centered design, and usability testing, the SAFPAS app will be implemented in three stages, where each stage introduces new features. Pantry clients will be encouraged to download the app and learn its key features at the end of baseline data collection. During the first weeks of each stage, training of participating food pantry directors/staff and Maryland Food Bank (MFB) staff will take place - focusing on use of any new features. Initial training will be follow up by proficiency testing.

Food Assessment Scoring Tool (FAST)(91) scores of client bags from pantries will be captured by the FAST scoring tool at baseline and post-treatment in a sample of 360 client bags (18 clients customers/pantry in 10 intervention and 10 control pantries, at baseline). Scores can range from 0-100 and are calculated based on the total weight and healthfulness of foods and beverages from 13 categories.

Inclusion Criteria: Regular client of the food pantry (visit food pantry/order from one or more participating food pantries at least 1 time/month), for the past year, identified by food pantry personnel Adult (18 years or older) Willing and able to use a mobile app through a smart phone (or other device) for making electronic Choice (echoice) selections and engaging in other communications Exclusion Criteria: Anticipate moving out of Baltimore in the next 12 months (for pilot study) Pregnant (due to changes in diet, weight and body composition) Medically or behaviorally at risk as indicated by the food pantry No access to a smart phone or other web-enabled device and Wi-Fi