Prism’s shift toward foods that make a meal
Shoppers at PRISM Food Shelf in Golden Valley are welcomed by fuller shelves, refrigerators and freezers stocked with twice the produce. Frozen fruit and vegetables — once nonexistent here — are now a priority. And the diversity of the food is starting to reflect the diversity of the neighborhood.
“We’re buying a lot less junk, it’s really been a lot of work to move us toward more nutrient dense foods,” said Nathan Hesse, Program Director at PRISM.
Every six months since he/they started in the role, Hesse has participated in FFEN’s free Strategic Food Sourcing “health check” for food shelves. And, Hesse has been reporting the results, along with a synopsis on the state of hunger relief in Minnesota, to the PRISM board.
“The board has been blown away by the intensity and the scrutiny we’re putting into what we’re sourcing,” Hesse said.
The reports show a category-by-category spending breakdown for the food shelf, available only through FFEN. The early reports showed the site’s top spend was jelly and foods that were more processed. Now, Hesse said, instead of putting dollars toward jams and jellies in the cooking and baking section of the food shelf, they’re focused on ingredients that help prepare a meal.
“It’s so important to think about where we’re sourcing our foods and what kind of foods we’re sourcing,” Hesse said. “The report breaks down granularly where our food streams come from.”
Hesse is pairing that data with actual feedback from food shelf shoppers. They observed that shoppers weren’t taking the expensive cereal purchased through the regional food bank so they stopped buying it and redirected those dollars toward items shoppers were actually asking for, like rice, pasta, and coconut milk. Additionally, shoppers, using an anonymous, real-time response kiosk survey system, didn’t identify that cereal was an item they were missing from the shelves.
Hesse also tracks the cost of serving each individual through the food shelf via the FFEN report, and knows that maintaining costs will mean continuing to diversify the streams of food coming into the site — informed by both the data and the shoppers themselves.
“Having that data and being able to speak to how our data proves what we’re doing here is following our values of dignity-centered service is important,” they said.
It allowed Hesse to justify an increased food budget to the board and, as the food shelf entered into partnership with Amazon to receive rescue food — food that can no longer be sold but is still safe to eat — it has also justified the need for a refrigerated truck.
“This report is one of the best tools we can have as food shelf leaders — that direct data, paired with what shoppers tell us, helps us serve our populations,” Hesse said.
Walter White has been on PRISM’s Board of Directors for two years. And, while he said he’s been affiliated with a lot of nonprofits through the years, he’s found concrete data like this isn’t always readily available.
“It’s great FFEN is helping food shelves look at how effective they are and find ways to improve,” White said.
With support from FFEN, the food shelf:
- Diagnosed spending patterns that were difficult to see on their own
- Prioritized providing fresh food over processed food
- Turned data into a case the board could act on
- Paired data with shopper feedback to redirect spending toward food shoppers say is most important
