Saint Ann Food Pantry Healthy Pantry Initiative – Recent Food Tastings

As a Partner Agency with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC (FBCENC), Saint Ann Food Pantry has registered as a Healthy Pantry. Being a Healthy Pantry, Saint Ann Food Pantry is asked to provide our client neighbors with a choice of healthy and nutritious foods and teach our clients how to prepare these foods. Our goal is to do this twice per year. Saint Ann Food Pantry Volunteer, Petra, is leading the Healthy Pantry Initiative for us. Petra’s goal is to provide a tasting as often as twice per month!

During April and May this year, our neighbors enjoyed a healthy Olive Oil dipping sauce for bread, while learning that olive oil is a healthier option than butter for bread. Petra also prepared Overnight Oats for tasting. Clients (and volunteers) enjoyed tasting the dipping sauce and Overnight Oats; each client was offered the recipes.

Through this experience, Petra gained insight into our client’s food preferences and concerns. Many people who come to Saint Ann Food Pantry and live with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, are eager to find financially feasible ways to change their diet without sacrificing the flavors they love. Petra also found that clients appreciated recipe cards and readily available explanations of unfamiliar ingredients, such as kefir.

In March, the FBCENC provided a Healthy Pantry training to its Partner Agency volunteers; two Saint Ann Food Pantry volunteers participated. We listened to Kenly Burchette MS, RD, LDN detail how sharing food with clients is “More Than a Meal”; each client may bring chronic illness, mobility, disease management, and more, with them to food pantries. Our “job” as a Healthy Pantry is to teach our neighbors how to prepare foods that are safe for their medical conditions as well as healthy. We also greet our neighbors with dignity and respect. During one tasting, a client shared gardening advice for herbs and flowers with us!

Saint Ann Food Pantry offers healthy food choices most weeks. Often these options are eggs, milk, kale, collard greens and locally grown vegetables. We’ve also shared plant-based milk products and yogurt!

Here’s what we give our neighbors each month to supplement their pantries: peanut butter or tuna, 4 cans of vegetables, pasta, pasta sauce, macaroni and cheese, dry beans, rice, soup and a few extras – PLUS Meat! Clients also receive fresh produce, deli and bakery items while supplies last.

Many thanks to Petra H. for her assistance in writing this post!