Food Pantry @ SHSU

The purpose of this Food and Nutrition Policy is to guide the commitment of the SHSU-FP to provide healthful foods, nutrition education, and health promotion to the SHSU student body. Our nutrition policy communicates to students, affiliated pantries and other agencies, donors, government programs and the community at large that we are committed to providing healthful foods to SHSU students.

 The SHSU-FP has served the SHSU student body and the community for several years. In recent years, the food pantry has become aware of the increasing rates of obesity and its associated co-morbidities during emerging adulthood.^1,2 SHSU-FP is firmly committed to providing healthful foods to students to help prevent these diet-related conditions.

 In a strategic effort to improve the quality of the food made available to students and provide health promotion, we have recently strengthened our partnerships with the Houston Food Bank (HFB) and the American Heart Association (AHA).

We want our student body to know that their health concerns, food, and cultural preferences are among our highest considerations in acquiring more healthful food. We recognize the challenges associated with the cost of nutritious food items, the ability to access wholesome, local foods, and the many other considerations affecting what students want and need.

We recognize the increasing role of the SHSU-FP in providing healthful foods to the student body. Our policy to procure and distribute foods of high nutritional quality demonstrates to the student body and the University that we take our role and responsibility seriously.

View Policy.

The SHSU-FB policy applies to all foods acquired by the food bank, including foods and beverages donated by food manufacturers, distributors, retailers, organizations, producers/growers, and community members, foods and beverages obtained from government programs, and foods and beverages purchased by the food bank.

 This policy centers on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the Healthy Eating Research (HER) Nutrition Guidelines for the Charitable Food System³, and client-food preference research. In accordance with this nutrition policy, we aim to actively seek, procure and distribute the following foods when appropriate and possible:

 Table 1: Healthy Eating Research Nutrition Guidelines for the Charitable Food System³, examples of Choose Often foods that will be prioritized at SHSU Food Pantry.

Healthful Foods to Prioritize in This Policy

Food pantry research clearly indicates that the people served prefer receiving healthful foods—particularly fresh fruits and vegetables. Although our policy aims to increase all of the “Choose Often” foods outlined in the HER Nutrition Guidelines, we will put considerable effort and emphasis initially on procuring more fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly those that are more colorful, nutrient-dense varieties.

Foods to Deprioritize at SHSU Food Pantry

The HER Nutrition Guidelines recommend “Choose Rarely” foods and beverages that contribute mainly saturated fat, sodium and added sugar. Such foods tend to be high in calories and low in nutrients. This nutrition policy aims to deprioritize the procurement and distribution by food banks of the “Choose Rarely” foods and beverages as outlined in the HER Nutrition Guidelines. When appropriate and possible, we will not actively seek or procure foods in this category and will work toward reducing our inventory of these types of items:

Table 2: Healthy Eating Research Nutrition Guidelines for the Charitable Food System³, examples of Choose Rarely foods that will be deprioritized at SHSU Food Pantry.

Our priority will be to shift purchasing resources towards cooking staples, items on the “Choose Often” list of the HER guidelines, and other dry international goods. We will avoid purchasing “Choose Rarely” foods with high added sugar content, such as soda and candy.

Our overall nutrition commitment to our student body is that 85% of all food orders, purchases and targeted donations will be nutritionally dense foods.

This policy will take effect on 9/1/2023 at which time it will become part of the Food Pantry’s organizational policies and procedures.  The Director of the Food Pantry is responsible for an annual review of this policy with staff in order to keep it up to date with community needs. All new staff and volunteers will be provided an orientation to the policy by either the Director or a Manager.