Abstract
Soup kitchens attempt to improve the food security of low-income individuals, but
the results of their efforts are rarely researched. We focused our study on the Inter-Faith
Council Soup Kitchen (IFC) near the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC)
in Chapel Hill, NC. The IFC uses no centralized nutrition planning and relies heavily
on volunteer cooks, yet we found their meals to be highly nutrient-dense when averaged
over a 1-month time frame and compared with the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) and
the Daily Reference Values (DRVs). In fact, the only nutrients needing improvement
were vitamin D, folate, and calcium. The number of servings per meal was also substantially
more than one third of the US Department of Agriculture Food Guide Pyramid recommendations,
except for dairy at all meals, vegetables at breakfast, and fruit at dinner.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Domestic food and nutrition security.J Am Diet Assoc. 2002; 102: 1840-1847
- Risk and protective factors for adult and child hunger among low-income housed and homeless female-headed families.Am J Public Health. 2004; 94: 109-115
- National data on household food security.Nutr Today. 2000; 35: 4
- Dependency on soup kitchens in urban areas of New York State.Am J Public Health. 1990; 80: 57-60
- Nutrition and health services needs among the homeless.Public Health Rep. 1991; 106: 364-374
- Evidence of nutritional risk in a population of homeless adults in rural northern California.J Am Diet Assoc. 1998; 98: 908-909
- Dietary intake and nutritional status of older adult homeless women.J Nutr Eldery. 2003; 23: 1-21
- Eliminating hunger. Urban Institute, Washington, DC1989
- Nutritional status of men attending a soup kitchen.Am J Public Health. 1985; 75: 875-878
- The nutrition status of women and children who are homeless.Nutr Today. 2002; 37: 70-77
- Characteristics of a random sample of emergency food program users in New York.Am J Public Health. 1991; 81: 914-917
- Demographic profile and nutrient intake assessment of individuals using emergency food programs.J Am Diet Assoc. 1989; 89: 1269-1272
- Soup kitchen meals.J Am Diet Assoc. 1990; 90: 989-991
- Absence of malnutrition in a population of homeless veterans.J Am Diet Assoc. 1996; 96: 1283-1285
- Food management practices used by people with limited resources to maintain food sufficiency as reported by nutrition educators.J Am Diet Assoc. 2002; 102: 1795-1799
- Dietary Reference Intakes for calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin D, and fluoride. National Academy Press, Washington, DC1997
- Dietary Reference Intakes for folate, other B vitamins, and choline. National Academy Press, Washington, DC1998
- A food labeling guide. 1994 (September (Editorial revisions June 1999). Available at: www.cfsan.fda.gov/∼dms/flg-7a.html. Accessed June 11, 2004)
- Food Guide Pyramid. US Dept of Agriculture, Human Nutrition Information Service, Washington, DC1992 (Home and Garden Bulletin No. 252)
- The Healthy Foundation provides nutrition for the homeless.Better Nutrition. 2002; 62: 18
Biography
S. Eppich is the supervisor of WIC/First Steps, Columbia Valley Community Health, Wenatchee, WA; at the time of the study, she was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Biography
C. P. Fernandez is a public health leadership fellowship director, North Carolina Institute for Public Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Article info
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 American Dietetic Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
