1. Menu of Options for Pantries
Helping Clients Choose Healthier Options

2. Garden Own and work garden
Own and work small garden with easy, key items (can focus on non-refrigerated produce)
Work with community garden/ers to receive extra produce (can focus on non-refrigerated produce)
Can local gardeners “plant a row” for the hungry?

3. Pantry Set-up
Pantry is set up to encourage healthier choices with displays, prominent location of healthy items over others, and signage that may change (quarterly, annually, etc. – Harvesters supplies signs)
Display nutrition info/F2E or not?/stoplight signs next to food or organize food by healthiest to least healthy in each food group
Prominent location and display of healthy items over others (maybe make a wall with all Diabetic friendly foods on that wall, or all “Red” foods together, then all “Green” foods together, then “Yellow” for stoplight approach)
Help draw clients eyes to the healthier food
Signs in shopping carts that encourage certain behaviors
Displays for healthy food items (permanent or temporary)
Putting produce or healthy options at beginning and end of “line”
(Can coolers be purchased/used if not fridges?)

4. Staff & Volunteer Training
Harvesters trains ordering person on how to choose/identify healthier options for their pantry
Harvesters trains staff/volunteers on basic MyPlate and helps with population specific health issues (or gives them local resources like Hy-Vee dietitians)
Harvesters trains pantry staff on cooking demo how-to’s
Harvesters can train pantry staff on culinary skills on certain tricky items
Harvesters helps with Safe Food Handling questions

5. Cooking Demonstrations
Pantry offers cooking demonstrations at pantry using their staff/volunteers (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.)
Harvesters offers cooking demonstrations at pantry
Simple tastings of healthy ready-to-eat items, like cutting up watermelon or new/unique bread for samples (no cooking required)

6. Nutrition Classes for Clients
Agency offers Harvesters’ nutrition on-going classes to their clients
Agency offers Harvesters’ one time nutrition classes to their clients
Agency is trained to offer classes themselves as Trained Teachers

7. Healthy Food Procurement
Harvesters helps brainstorm additional opportunities for pantries to get healthy food for pantry (partnering with farmers, farmers markets, Giving Grove, requesting specific foods for their food drives/donors from Cooking Matters list, etc.)

8. Nudging Clients
Group food next to each other at pantry to make a meal with them, called “clustering”. For example, group pasta with marinara sauce, vegetables, and a cheese.
Display and distribute healthy recipes from Harvesters website or other sites with items in pantry (near the item itself)
Allow clients to open bag to sample.

9. Brochures/Posters/Visual Aids
Agency distributes Harvesters’ healthy newsletter with recipes to clients
Agency posts Harvesters’ healthy newsletter for clients at site
Pantry finds and offers Health and Disease brochures specific to clients’ needs (Harvesters can help)
Pantry hangs visuals in pantry or waiting room (MyPlate posters, posters about why item is healthy, if it’s low in sugar or sodium, etc.)

10. Client Choice at Pantry
Full Client Choice pantry
Not full client choice in pantry shopping, but clients can fill out a “request” form for pantry staff to “fill their order” based on MyPlate recommendations in Agency Handbook, or choices between 2 options in each food group category and staff “fills order”
Pantry uses Agency Handbook MyPlate recommendations to create healthy pre-packed bags for clients
Pantry staff encourage/make clients choose from MyPlate recommendations in Agency Handbook when shopping
Even if no client choice, agency offers healthy perishables when possible as choice (can be refrigerated or not)
Pantry offers healthy MyPlate /F2E foods as much as possible – both shelf stable and perishable

11. Health Screenings
Partner with local dietitians, nurses to offer on-going regular health screenings for clients during pantry to see how they are improving/declining in health (Harvesters can help)