Overview
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.
Eligibility
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