In 2003, USDA spent $41.7 billion on 15 food assistance
programs aimed at improving the nutrition and well-being of needy
Americans. The Food Stamp Program, the largest of the programs,
served over 21 million people, and 16.4 million school children
received free or reduced-price lunches from the National School
Lunch Program. Yet, 4.3 million American households visited a food
pantry, and 1.1 million people ate a meal at an emergency kitchen
in a typical month in 2001.
Why do people turn to emergency food assistance providers? Who are
food pantries and emergency kitchens serving? Does emergency food
assistance supplement or replace Federal food assistance? Emergency
food providers serve a diverse population, and they do not serve
the same purpose for all users. For some, emergency food providers
help the household weather a short-term setback, like an unexpected
medical bill or car repair. For others, especially those who visit
emergency kitchens, this food assistance may be their one hot meal
a day.
According to a two-phase national study funded by ERS, many food
pantry users across the Nation also participate in the Food Stamp
Program and the National School Lunch Program, suggesting that their
food pantry or emergency kitchen use supplements, not replaces,
Federal food assistance. Another study in Kansas City, MO, found
just that: Some low-income households occasionally visit food pantries
to supplement food stamp benefits. Emergency food users who do not
participate in the Food Stamp Program most commonly report that
they do not apply for the program because they doubt that they are
eligible, the application process is too difficult, or they do not
want help from the Government.
The ERS-funded study estimates that almost 33,000 food pantries
and over 5,000 emergency kitchens operate in the United States (see
box, “Who Provides Emergency Food?”).
Food pantries and emergency kitchens are the street-level providers
of emergency food assistance, distributing food directly to needy
households. Food pantries provide bags of food to households to
prepare meals at home. Emergency kitchens provide prepared meals
that are eaten at the site.
Who
Provides Emergency Food?
The ERS-funded study gathered information from
over 3,000 food pantries and emergency kitchens between March
and November 2000. Food pantries and emergency kitchens were
selected from a list of organizations identified by food banks,
food rescue organizations, emergency food organizations, and
other social service agencies.
The study found that food pantries and emergency kitchens
are typically small, community-based organizations. About
two-thirds of food pantries and emergency kitchens report
that they are affiliated with a religious organization. On
an average day, 60 percent of food pantries serve fewer than
25 households. Over half operate with an annual budget of
less than $5,000. Emergency kitchens vary more in size than
food pantries. Just under a third of emergency kitchens have
annual budgets of less than $5,000, while more than a fourth
had an annual budget of $20,000 or more. About a third of
emergency kitchens serve fewer than 50 people at a typical
lunch, the most common meal served at emergency kitchens.
However, in the largest 15 percent of emergency kitchens,
over 200 people received lunch on a typical day.
Almost all organizations in the EFAS rely on volunteers to
assist in their operations. About a fourth of food pantries
and half of emergency kitchens did not employ a single paid
staff person. Most food pantries and emergency kitchens are
connected to an organization—a food bank, food rescue
organization, or emergency food organization—that acts
as a “wholesaler,” receiving food donations from
a variety of sources and distributing them to food pantries
or emergency kitchens. Most wholesalers in the EFAS have paid
employees, as well as volunteers.
In 2003, USDA provided almost $400 million worth of food to
States for distribution to emergency food providers, through
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). In addition,
USDA provided about $50 million in administrative funds to
State agencies to support their food distribution. State agencies
must establish income eligibility standards to ensure that
TEFAP foods provided for household distribution go only to
low-income households. For TEFAP foods used in meal preparation
at emergency kitchens, no eligibility standards are required,
but providers must serve predominately needy persons. Although
the amount of commodities available through TEFAP has varied
throughout the history of the program, USDA commodities accounted
for nearly 14 percent of all food distributed by emergency
food providers in 2000.
Food pantries and emergency kitchens, together with food
banks, food rescue organizations, and emergency food organizations,
make up the country’s emergency food assistance system (EFAS).
EFAS organizations generally provide food to anyone who requests
it, although some may limit access based on a person’s place
of residence or household income. Because of the minimal eligibility
restrictions and documentation requirements, households experiencing
a sudden or unexpected need can quickly access the system, even
on an emergency basis.
Who Uses Emergency Food?
Food pantries and emergency kitchens provided an estimated
198 million meals in an average month in 2000. During a typical
month in 2001, about 4.3 million different households, including
8.0 million adults and 4.5 million children, received food from
pantries, and about 1.1 million people (856,000 adults and 275,000
children) received meals from emergency kitchens. These findings
suggest that the average food pantry household receives food for
14 meals per person per month, and the average emergency kitchen
user receives 14 meals per month.
Emergency food providers serve a diverse clientele in terms of household
composition, race and ethnicity, education, and employment. About
half of households that visit food pantries have children in them,
and few of the families are homeless. People that use emergency
kitchens, on the other hand, are most likely to live alone, and
almost 40 percent are homeless. About 46 percent of adult pantry
users and 39 percent of adult emergency kitchen users have less
than a high school education. Although their low levels of education
are likely to limit employment possibilities, about a fourth of
households that use pantries or emergency kitchens have an employed
person in them.
Over 90 percent of food pantry households and 85 percent of emergency
kitchen households have incomes below 130 percent of the poverty
line (the income cutoff for Food Stamp Program eligibility). Monthly
income averages $781 for pantry households and $708 for emergency
kitchen households. About three-fourths of food pantry and emergency
kitchen households are food insecure, which means they have a limited
ability to acquire food because of financial constraints. Two in
five emergency kitchen households and one in four pantry households
have said that an adult in the household did not eat for an entire
day at some time in the last year because they did not have enough
money to buy food.
Many EFAS Users Participate in Federal Food Assistance Programs.
. .
The ERS-funded study collected extensive information
between August and November 2001 about emergency food users’
eligibility for and use of Federal food assistance programs. Program
eligibility was calculated using information about a household’s
income and assets, and the number and age of children in the households.
According to the study, 69 percent of pantry households and 45 percent
of emergency kitchen households used both private and Federal food
assistance.
EFAS households were more likely to be eligible for and
to participate in the Food Stamp Program (FSP) than any other Federal
food assistance program. About 9 in 10 pantry households and more
than 8 in 10 emergency kitchen households were eligible for the
FSP. Almost half of pantry households and more than a third of emergency
kitchen households received food stamps in the year before the survey,
with most receiving food stamps and emergency food assistance in
the same month.
While more pantry and emergency kitchen households participated
in the FSP than in other Federal food assistance programs, the rate
of participation among eligible households was highest in the National
School Lunch Program (NSLP). Over 80 percent of the households who
visited a food pantry or emergency kitchen and met the eligibility
requirements for the NSLP had a child who received free or reduced-price
lunches. Children in eligible EFAS households participated at a
slightly lower rate (70 percent) in the School Breakfast Program
(SBP). EFAS households were less likely to participate in the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC), which provides benefits only to pregnant and breastfeeding
low-income women and children up to age 5 who are at nutritional
risk.
. . .Though Many Eligible Households Do Not
Almost half of pantry and emergency kitchen users
were FSP-eligible nonparticipants in the year before the survey—that
is, they were eligible to receive food stamps but did not. Between
70 and 80 percent of these eligible nonparticipants reported that
they had not even applied to the FSP in the year before the survey.
These eligible nonparticipants gave a variety of reasons for not
applying. Over a third who visited emergency kitchens and almost
half who visited food pantries doubted that they were eligible,
with some saying that they had been sanctioned or lost eligibility
in the past. Another 10 percent preferred not to receive help from
the Government. For this group, emergency food assistance providers
appear to operate as a substitute for Federal food assistance. About
8 percent said that there was too much paperwork involved in applying
for the FSP, and 4 to 8 percent said that the small benefits were
not worth the effort. Some said that they did not apply because
they did not know about the program or how to apply for it. Emergency
food providers may be a valuable link to these households, and could
provide information about Federal food assistance programs and the
application process and help households determine their expected
benefits. Only 16 percent of food pantries and emergency kitchens,
however, reported that they provide counseling to households about
their eligibility for Federal food assistance programs.
Emergency food users gave a variety
of reasons for not applying for food stamps
Food pantry
users
Emergency
kitchen users
Reasons for not applying
Percent of
eligible
nonparticipants who have
not applied for food stamps
Doubt eligibility, sanctioned or lost eligibility
46.8
36.3
Prefer not to receive help from the Government
8.8
11.0
Too much paperwork, can’t fill out application
forms
8.2
8.2
Small benefits are not worth the effort
8.2
4.2
No longer need food stamps
6.4
9.3
Do not know about the Food Stamp Program
or how to get benefits
5.1
11.5
Do not have transportation to the food stamp office
4.9
2.9
Feel embarrassed or uncomfortable about
getting food stamps
4.6
7.4
Questions are too personal
1.2
1.3
Food stamp office hours are inconvenient
1.0
0.5
Negative attitudes of food stamp office staff
0.8
0.4
USDA is currently funding initiatives for emergency
food providers to develop ways to help households access Federal
food assistance programs. For example, food banks in Delaware and
New York have developed methods to prescreen households for FSP
eligibility and to assist them in the application process. Patterns of Food Stamp and Food
Pantry Use Over Time:
Evidence from Kansas City, Missouri
ERS collaborated with the University of Missouri-Columbia
to learn more about the patterns in household use of emergency food
and the Food Stamp Program. The data used in the analysis covered
a broader time frame than most studies of emergency food assistance,
and did not rely on an emergency food user’s ability to recall
past use of emergency and Federal food assistance.
The research used a unique database to examine household use of
food pantries between January 1998 and May 2001. Food pantries in
the Kansas City metropolitan area recorded in the database the number
and value of services they provided to households each month. The
University of Missouri-Columbia and ERS researchers were able to
link data on food pantry visits and food stamp use for the 85,258
households that used at least one of these forms of food assistance
during the study period.
The researchers found that four times as many households used food
stamps as used food pantries in a given month. And, food stamp households
used food stamps more often than food pantry households used food
pantries. Between January 1998 and May 2001, the average food stamp
household received benefits in 12 months, whereas the average food
pantry household received aid in only 5 of the observed months and
rarely in consecutive months.
The researchers also found that almost 60 percent of food pantry
households also received food stamps some time during the period,
implying that, for many food pantry households, food pantry use
does not reflect a lack of access to the FSP.
On the other hand, roughly 40 percent of food pantry households
did not receive food stamps at any time between January 1998 and
May 2001. Would the households that relied only on food pantries
have been better served by the FSP? The analysis indicated that
these households averaged two visits to a food pantry over the 3½-year
study. The greater flexibility and immediacy of food pantries allow
them to meet these households’ needs for sporadic, short-term
food assistance, which may be difficult for the FSP to do.
The data from Kansas City also allowed food stamp households and
their reliance on food pantries to be examined. Such an analysis
is not possible with the national survey data because they include
only a sample of emergency food users. The extent to which food
stamp recipients also rely on food pantries may provide some indication
of the adequacy of food stamp benefits. The analysis found that
almost two-thirds of food stamp households did not visit a food
pantry at any time during the study period, implying that many food
stamp households do not turn to food pantries as a way to supplement
their food stamp benefits. And, the 37 percent of food stamp households
that did use a food pantry, did not do so regularly. In almost any
given month during the study, less than 10 percent of food stamp
households supplemented their food stamp benefits by visiting a
food pantry.
Emergency food providers play an important role in providing food
assistance and also represent a connection to a population that
may benefit from Federal food assistance. More attention to those
who use emergency food and to their use of Federal food assistance
can help ensure that the EFAS and Federal food assistance programs
work together to most effectively reach those in need.
“The Food Safety Net Since Welfare Reform: Use of Private
and Public Food Assistance in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area,”
by Jane Mosley and Laura Tiehen, Social Service Review
79(2), pp. 267-283, June 2004.