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Using Digital Technology to Facilitate Choice for Food Pantry Customers: An Evaluation of a Pilot Program
Yvette Ng1, Katherine Tomaino Fraser1, Aikaterini Stamou1
1CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, The City University of New York, New York, NY.
Objective:
To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a novel Digital Choice model at an urban food pantry from customer and staff perspectives.
Design:
Focus groups, cross-sectional survey, and in-depth interviews.
Setting:
New York City.
Participants:
Thirty Digital Choice customers participated in 3 focus groups, 326 Digital Choice and non-Digital Choice customers completed the survey, and 8 program staff were interviewed.
Interventions:
The Digital Choice model used text messaging/online forms to allow customers to preorder 1 of 4 pantry boxes for pickup at 1 of 3 community sites.
Phenomena Of Interest:
Feasibility, acceptability.
Analysis:
Themes were identified in interviews and focus groups using inductive and deductive approaches, and descriptive statistics were produced from survey and order data.
Results:
Digital Choice customers indicated high overall satisfaction with the program (96% rated the experience positively), and staff found the program feasible to implement at the current scale. However, among the broader population of Digital Choice and non-Digital Choice customers, 40% indicated challenges with technology.
Conclusions And Implications:
This evaluation suggests that incorporating digital technology to facilitate customer choice and partnering with community sites in the food pantry process is feasible and acceptable for many, but not all, customers.
