Food shelf focuses on foods shoppers want most
At Community Pathways of Steele County, Executive Director Dom Korbel revels in using numbers to better understand the needs of people accessing the food shelf.
He found out about FFEN’s Food Sourcing Analysis Report and Consultation in the first few months of taking over as the Executive Director at the site. The report, he said, provided just the data he was looking for to guide decision making and purchases at the food shelf, focusing on the top foods shoppers wanted most.
“I know I get to talk to FFEN and be a data nerd,” he said. “That touch point is still super important to me because I might be asking questions that I’m not sure anyone else has answers to (but FFEN).”
Dom Korbel , Executive Director, Community Pathways of Steele County
Through the years, Korbel has studied the results of numerous reports, available from FFEN every six months, and said he still finds value in the process.
“I know I get to talk to FFEN and be a data nerd,” he said. “That touch point is still super important to me because I might be asking questions that I’m not sure anyone else has answers to (but FFEN).”
In the beginning, Korbel said, the report helped him identify priority foods the site should be sourcing.
“We gained knowledge about what our shopper behaviors and habits were,” he said. “Then, pretty quickly, we turned that into how do we utilize those resources most efficiently to meet the needs of shoppers based on data, not perception.”
The first thing he did was use the report to debunk the myth that people accessing the food shelf just wanted macaroni and cheese and SpaghettiOs.
“That data was really powerful,” he said. “Whether you have space or financial capacity issues, to buy the right stuff, that’s important and it’s all based on the data we get from the FSA, that is our guiding light.”
With the help of a customized Food Sourcing Analysis Report and Consultation Community Pathways:
* Relies on data to make decisions about food ordering, focusing purchases on the foods that are most important to shoppers.
* Debunks myths that food shelf shoppers want only non-perishable goods.
* Communicates with the public, local businesses, and donors about the needs of the food shelf using data to explain what is most important at the site.
* Strategically guides donations to the food shelf to save on costs and retain the same variety of foods.
Korbel also uses the report to guide donations from the community, looking at categories of food they are not able to access as often because of cost.
Additionally, he said, the data provides him with the tools he needs to talk to area businesses and community groups.
“It has given us credibility with donors, that we aren’t just doing this, we’re doing it with intention and purpose,” he said.
Korbel has all but eliminated convenience foods and microwaveable meals from the food shelf purchases, providing them only to those who are unhoused or living out of hotels. Instead, he said dollars go toward fresh foods like produce, meat, dairy, and eggs and then to baking items including flour and masa.
“Those are items people want for healthy cooking and baking,” he said. “If we buy things that take up real estate in our backroom we want to use that real estate for the highest ranking foods as well.”
For him that means, if it is a choice between a pallet of soup or a pallet of canned fruit, he chooses canned fruit every time because it ranks higher on the list of most important foods as identified by the Minnesota Food Shelf Shopper Survey.
