UVM AHEC

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

2024

Focus Area

Social Determinants of Health

Abstract

Background:

Feeding Champlain Valley (FC) is a Vermont organization working to address hunger in Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle counties. One of FC’s programs is an online food ordering and delivery service, which allows clients to order groceries through the PantrySoft website and have them delivered to a selected location. This program aims to reach populations that are unable to travel to single-location food pantries. PantrySoft is available in 33  languages, highlighting the need to understand how different populations interact with the program.

Previous studies have identified a number of barriers affecting foreign-born residents who use food pantries, including limited knowledge of how to prepare foods provided by the pantry, difficulty reading nutritional information on food labels, and reduced satisfaction with the variety and cultural appropriateness of provided food. Studies specifically addressing the experience of non-English and English-speakers who use traditional and mobile food pantries are lacking. Our study aims to better understand the opinions, usage, and challenges of English vs. non-English speakers who utilize FC’s mobile food pantry.

Methods:

Working with employees of Feeding Champlain Valley, a voluntary twelve question survey was inserted into the biweekly PantrySoft food ordering platform. Data was collected between 7/29 and 8/12/2024 on English proficiency, primary language, and a variety of relevant topics such as the cultural relevance of provided food and satisfaction of the amount and type of food available. Ten questions aimed to evaluate the ordering and delivery experience of clients. Data between the population answering no English proficiency or not confident in their English proficiency was compared to the population that indicated they were somewhat confident in their English proficiency or above, including Chi squared tests to determine statistical significance.

Results:

41.81 percent of all PantrySoft users over a 2 week period (125 total individuals) responded to the optional survey over the period of data collection. Seven percent indicated that they had no English proficiency or were not confident in their English proficiency. Statistically significant differences (p < .05) between respondents confident in their English proficiency versus respondents not confident in their English proficiency were found in three questions: ability to understand nutritional labels on provided food, language barriers encountered while participating in the home food delivery program, and accommodation of cultural dietary preferences. No significant difference was found between groups when asked about difficulty navigating PantrySoft.

Conclusion:

PantrySoft aims to serve all individuals equitably regardless of language, and encouraging signs regarding the experience of English vs. non-English speaking clients were found, evident by the lack of statistically significant differences in seven of the ten questions. However, the statistically significant differences in the remaining three questions, described above, provides future directions for new initiatives. For example, it may be beneficial to provide nutrition information understandable to all clients, not solely English-speaking individuals. Lastly, limitations did exist in data collection, including the response rate, the possibility of the survey not being available in all languages spoken by clients, and the reliance on Google Translate AI to translate the survey in PantrySoft. This survey provides a framework to track changes in attitude and experience among these two populations over time, and over the course of future data collection periods, address these limitations.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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