Abstract
One in eight people in the U.S. experience food insecurity (FI). To date, the food banking sector has been at the forefront of efforts to address FI, but the healthcare sector is becoming increasingly involved in such efforts. The extent of collaboration between the two sectors remains unclear. We explored food banking stakeholders’ views on the current state of partnerships between the two sectors. We used purposive sampling to recruit ten key informants for semi-structured interviews. We also conducted a national online survey to gather data from food bank directors (n = 137). Thematic analysis generated two major themes: (1) Healthcare and food banking stakeholders are coordinating to achieve collective impact, and (2) Food banking-healthcare partnerships are leveraging various resources and vested interests within the medical community. We found evidence of ongoing partnerships between the two sectors and opportunities to strengthen these partnerships through the support of backbone organizations.
Highlights
We examined food banking stakeholders’ views on the current state of partnerships between food banking and healthcare systems to address the social determinants of food insecurity
The themes were analyzed using a general inductive approach [22]. For this analysis of qualitative data from food bank system stakeholders, we focused on the codes that identified the healthcare system as an institutional stakeholder in addressing diet-related health inequities
We interviewed 10 key informants, including a food bank board member, two food bank executive directors, a national anti-hunger organization leader, two foundation program officers, an academic researcher, two anti-hunger advocates, and a state house representative
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Food insecurity, defined as having limited access to adequate food due to a lack of money and resources, is a major public health concern affecting 38.3 million people in the. A growing body of literature has found associations between food insecurity and a wide range of negative health outcomes, including hypertension and diabetes [2,3]. Food insecurity has been linked to poor management of diabetes [4] and higher healthcare utilization and cost [5]. Food insecurity has been associated with obesity in women [6] and with psychosocial stressors and poorer mental health [7]
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