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Food & Nutrition

1. How should you handle nutrition requests from special needs clients?
Many of your clients may be facing health problems such as Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension, and Obesity.  In other cases, you may be dealing with food allergies, cultural preferences and cooking limitations.  All of these factors may affect the appropriateness of the foods your pantry or feeding program provides. 

The first step is to know your population.  Do your best to know what issues your clients are facing and concerned with.  It doesn’t have to be a matter of catering to everyone individually, but simply getting a collective idea of what your clients’ needs are.

Overall, you want to try to offer the best variety of nutritious foods available. It doesn’t matter whether someone has diabetes, high cholesterol or obesity. The same practical nutrition guidelines may be applied in these situations. If you are doing your best to provide staple items that are low in fat, sodium and sugar and those that are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals, then you are meeting the needs of all your clients and contributing to their better health. 

Unhealthy foods are inevitably available, but try to limit the frequency and amount offered to clients. All foods can be part of a healthy diet in moderation. It’s important to balance out your grocery and menu items with more nutritious options whenever possible.  

2. How do you build a healthy package of groceries for a family?
A nutritious grocery package should include components from different food groups, including grains, fruits, vegetables, protein and dairy. 

Refer to the samples of food pantry guidelines in the handbook. These guidelines are personalized based on the MyPyramid recommendations on gender, age and activity level. Calorie levels are listed for each individual and converted to family packages. This takes the guesswork out of knowing whether you are giving too little or too much food and ensures that your clients are getting the nutritious food they need to nourish their families.

Once you know what items to stock your pantry with, it’s easier to make the appropriate decisions when ordering online from the NTFB or purchasing additional groceries from another source.

3. If you are an on-site feeding program, what components should be included to create a well-balanced meal?
Use MyPyramid (www.mypyramid.gov) to plan your on-site meals.  Ideally, each meal should include a grain, protein such as meat or beans, two kinds of fruits and/or vegetables and milk. You might decide to serve all the items separately, or combine some of them in a casserole.  For example, you could serve a chicken drumstick with some rice, broccoli, carrots and a glass of milk or you could serve spaghetti with meat sauce along with salad and a glass of milk.  In the first meal, all the components are served separately.  In the second meal, there are three components in the spaghetti (pasta, tomato sauce, and ground meat) and the other components are served on the side. 

Meal planning can be a fun and creative activity.  If you run out of ideas, try searching recipe sites like all recipes, recipe finder, or this link for inspiration.  Many sites let you search by ingredient.  For example, let’s say you have ground beef and potatoes. If you choose to search by ingredient, you would enter those ingredients, and the site would pull up all the recipes it can find with those ingredients. 

Also, consider consulting with James Williams, Community Kitchen Chef or Katherine Lindholm, RD, Nutrition Education Manager (katherine@ntfb.org) for new ideas.  Don’t forget to use the Nutrition Education Department for ideas to improve the nutritional quality of your meals without greatly increasing the cost!

4.  What are some ways to ensure that the food you collect from the NTFB is properly handled and safe to eat?
Most people wonder, “How long can I keep a product after the product date has passed?” The answer to this question depends on a number of factors. Some are simple, other are complicated.

• A.  Keep Cold Foods Cold and Hot Foods Hot
  Frozen and refrigerated product should be maintained in cold temperatures during transport if possible. It should also be delivered and stored as quickly as possible.  Food that is exposed to the temperature danger zone between 41-135 degrees Fahrenheit for more than 4 hours may become unsafe to eat. Be sure to monitor your coolers and freezers for maintaining the proper and safe temperatures too. 

 
Occasionally, meats may be frozen prior to their expiration date. You may distribute this to clients if that product is distributed frozen within 6 months and clients are told to prepare the entire product immediately after thawing. Previously frozen foods should never be thawed and then re-frozen. 

• B.  Check the Date and Inspect the Product           
  The North Texas Food Bank’s policy is to discard foods that are bottled or jarred past the product date or if liquids appear cloudy or discolored.  Some foods may last longer past the “sell by” or “best when used by” date.  The quality and freshness may be compromised, but they are still considered safe to eat.  Always inspect your product upon receiving.

• C.  When in Doubt, Throw it Out!  
  The North Texas Food Bank’s policy is to discard bulging, rusted or severely dented cans with metal touching metal, opened or leaking packages and broken seals.  If you notice items with these flaws when you unpack them at your facility, do not distribute them or cook with them.  
  
  Do not distribute out of date perishable products, such as packaged fresh produce, fresh meats and dairy products to your clients.  Products requiring refrigeration should not be distributed to clients past the use, sell or pull by dates due to the possible growth of pathogens that can cause food-borne illness.  Be sure to use the FIFO (First In First Out) method of stocking and distributing your inventory.
  

On-site feeding programs should always make sure that food is cooked or re-heated and held at the proper temperatures before serving.  Please note that if you have any concerns about the product’s integrity or food safety, practice caution.  Remember: When in Doubt, Throw it out! 

5.  Why is it important to partner with the NTFB to provide nutrition education for your clients?
Eliminating hunger takes more than just providing a quick fix meal. Eliminating hunger requires both short and long term solutions including food AND education.  We support the philosophy that you can “give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach him how to fish, and he can eat for a lifetime.” Providing nutrition education to low-income clients makes a tremendous difference in the quality of their lives. They learn the life skills needed to cook, shop and make better food choices, allowing them to feed their families nutritious meals on a budget.  The NTFB is making an effort to provide quality, nutritious food to those you serve. We also provide ongoing nutrition education classes, workshops and materials upon request.  For our Food Resources Management Courses (Operation Frontline), contact Sarah Bensinger (sarahb@ntfb.org).  For additional workshops or materials, contact Katherine Lindholm, RD (katherine@ntfb.org).

For more resources and updates, check the Food and Nutrition areas on the North Texas Food Bank’s website, including download a document and this link.

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