JACKSON, Mississippi — Food pantry clients may soon be able to find healthier options more often, thanks to new food service guidelines.
Thirty-five participants representing 10 food pantries across the state recently received training on the Healthy Advocacy in Food Pantries (SWAP) guidelines and then gained hands-on experience. The joint training by Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Food Network was held in Jackson.
After an hour-long virtual workshop led by Brittney Cavaliere of Connecticut Food Share, the team used SWAP guidelines to randomly arrange food from grocery carts on shelves with color-coded signs.
Keltora Chandler, program manager for MSU Extension’s food and health program, AIM for CHangE, said the guidelines are based on the familiar concept of a traffic light.
“Green means ‘frequent choice,’ yellow means ‘occasionally choice,’ and red means ‘rare choice,'” Chandler says. “These categories are designed to help food pantry clients understand that they can choose certain foods frequently, but that doesn’t mean they can’t eat any foods.”
Course materials included signs and informational notebooks to help classify different foods based on ingredients of concern, such as added sugars, sodium and saturated fat.
“Together we applied the concepts taught in the workshop, allowing participants to better understand where to display food and we were able to answer their questions as they viewed the contents of their carts,” she said.
Jasmine Stiles, who runs Fruit of Love Food Pantry in Leland, said learning how to read food labels and sort foods into green, yellow and red categories has been a game changer.
“This knowledge will be seamlessly integrated into our school feeding program and bimonthly food distributions, empowering clients to make better food choices and improve their overall health,” Stiles said. “I look forward to seeing the positive impact this will have in our community.”
Robin Copeland, agency relations manager for Mississippi Food Network, said the organization is excited to bring the SWAP program to food pantries across the state.
“Mississippi Food Network’s mission is to transform people’s lives by fighting hunger today and fostering hope for a healthier tomorrow,” Copeland said. “Health at the Pantry ensures our neighbors have a healthier experience when they receive food from our food pantry.”
AIM for CHangE stands for “Advancing, Inspiring, Motivating for Community Health through Extension.” The award-winning program began in 2018 and is funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To learn more about AIM for CHangE and how it is helping to reduce obesity and improve the health of Mississippi communities, visit http://msuext.ms/aim.
