Adapting Dietary Guidelines to Client-Centered Preferences at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK)

The Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) in New Haven, Connecticut exists to serve individuals who are food insecure, through the provision of meals. A majority of DESK’s food is sourced through donations and federal programs. A significant portion of these donations are from Yale University Dining, where trays of food from the dining hall are delivered multiple times a week. Connecticut faces a 6.4 percent prevalence of households with low food security, exceeding the 5.2 percent national average (Coleman-Jensen, 2017). Meals served at soup kitchens tend to contain high levels of fat and low levels of fiber, vitamins, and minerals (Lyles et al., 2013; Sisson, 2011), contributing to malnutrition, obesity, high blood pressure, and many other chronic conditions (Sisson, 2011). Currently, there are no national guidelines to regulate the nutrition of meals served specifically at these institutions, allowing for the continued distribution of meals with insufficient nutritional value (Koh et al., 2015; Kourgialis et al., 2001). The objectives of this study were as follows: Conduct a nutritional assessment of the dinners served by DESK, establish effective principles for the DESK menu based on the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and incorporate client food preferences in menu adaptations.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/1018/thumbnail.jp

A Trauma-Informed Atmospheric Assessment for Food Assistance Programs

Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) is a soup kitchen that provides daily suppers to individuals experiencing homelessness and/or food insecurity in New Haven, CT. DESK aims to provide services that promote health, community, and equity, but within the current framework of operation, guests who frequent DESK who have a history of trauma or ongoing experience with trauma may have unmet needs. Medical literature has established that trauma is more than an event, as it influences how an individual perceives and interacts with other people and other environments. However, there is little work on how Trauma-Informed Care model can be implemented in social service settings to transform spatial design and ultimately humanize and value the experiences of those who have experienced trauma. This project aimed to characterize how DESK can better serve its guests and identify best trauma-informed practices for carrying out its mission. Our team made recommendations rooted in trauma-informed spatial design that to address these concerns. Using Trauma-Informed Care to transform spatial design for food assistance programs is an innovative strategy for improving the quality and delivery of social services. The findings from this project will help DESK secure support from local and municipal stakeholders as it redefines itself as a model of trauma-informed care in food assistance programs.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/1026/thumbnail.jp

Coalition Building and Food Insecurity: How an Equity and Justice Framework Guided a Viable Food Assistance Network

Food insecurity is widespread in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the need for food assistance and created opportunities for collaboration among historically-siloed organizations. Research has demonstrated the importance of coalition building and community organizing in Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) change and its potential to address equitable access to food, ultimately improving population health outcomes. In New Haven, community partners formed a coalition to address systems-level issues in the local food assistance system through the Greater New Haven Coordinated Food Assistance Network (CFAN). Organizing the development of CFAN within the framework of Collaborating for Equity and Justice (CEJ) reveals a new way of collaborating with communities for social change with an explicit focus on equity and justice. A document review exploring the initiation and growth of the network found that 165 individuals, representing 63 organizations, participated in CFAN since its inception and collaborated on 50 actions that promote food access and overall health. Eighty-one percent of these actions advanced equitable resource distribution across the food system, with forty-five percent focused on coordinating food programs to meet the needs of underserved communities. With the goal of improving access to food while addressing overall equity within the system, the authors describe CFAN as a potential community organizing model in food assistance systems

sj-docx-4-hpp-10.1177_15248399221112454 – Supplemental material for The Implementation of a Nutrition Intervention in Food Pantries: The Spirit of SWAP

Supplemental material, sj-docx-4-hpp-10.1177_15248399221112454 for The Implementation of a Nutrition Intervention in Food Pantries: The Spirit of SWAP by S. René Lavinghouze, Terrence P. O’Toole, LaNita S. Wright, Sofia I. Morales, Genesis Vicente, Katherine LaMonaca, Jasmine Rios, Shayna D. Cunningham, Jackson Higginbottom, Erin Mathios, Steve Werlin, James Cramer, Alycia Santilli and Kathleen O’Connor Duffany in Health Promotion Practice</p

sj-docx-2-hpp-10.1177_15248399221112454 – Supplemental material for The Implementation of a Nutrition Intervention in Food Pantries: The Spirit of SWAP

Supplemental material, sj-docx-2-hpp-10.1177_15248399221112454 for The Implementation of a Nutrition Intervention in Food Pantries: The Spirit of SWAP by S. René Lavinghouze, Terrence P. O’Toole, LaNita S. Wright, Sofia I. Morales, Genesis Vicente, Katherine LaMonaca, Jasmine Rios, Shayna D. Cunningham, Jackson Higginbottom, Erin Mathios, Steve Werlin, James Cramer, Alycia Santilli and Kathleen O’Connor Duffany in Health Promotion Practice</p

sj-docx-3-hpp-10.1177_15248399221112454 – Supplemental material for The Implementation of a Nutrition Intervention in Food Pantries: The Spirit of SWAP

Supplemental material, sj-docx-3-hpp-10.1177_15248399221112454 for The Implementation of a Nutrition Intervention in Food Pantries: The Spirit of SWAP by S. René Lavinghouze, Terrence P. O’Toole, LaNita S. Wright, Sofia I. Morales, Genesis Vicente, Katherine LaMonaca, Jasmine Rios, Shayna D. Cunningham, Jackson Higginbottom, Erin Mathios, Steve Werlin, James Cramer, Alycia Santilli and Kathleen O’Connor Duffany in Health Promotion Practice</p

sj-docx-1-hpp-10.1177_15248399221112454 – Supplemental material for The Implementation of a Nutrition Intervention in Food Pantries: The Spirit of SWAP

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-hpp-10.1177_15248399221112454 for The Implementation of a Nutrition Intervention in Food Pantries: The Spirit of SWAP by S. René Lavinghouze, Terrence P. O’Toole, LaNita S. Wright, Sofia I. Morales, Genesis Vicente, Katherine LaMonaca, Jasmine Rios, Shayna D. Cunningham, Jackson Higginbottom, Erin Mathios, Steve Werlin, James Cramer, Alycia Santilli and Kathleen O’Connor Duffany in Health Promotion Practice</p