Consumer choice as experienced in the user-choice food pantry environment: motivations and situational influences on food selection

While scholarship has investigated how to provide more healthy food options in choice pantry environments, research has just begun to investigate how pantry users go about making decisions regarding food items when the ability to choose is present. The present analysis sought to investigate the factors prohibiting and inhibiting food decision making in choice pantries from the perspective of frequent pantry users. Six focus group interviews were conducted with visitors to choice food pantries, to discuss the decision-making process involved in food selection during choice pantry visits. Each was provided a $US 15 remuneration for taking part. A school-based choice food pantry in Anderson, Indiana, USA, a small Midwestern community. Thirty-one men and women, largely aged 45–64 years, who made use of choice food pantries at least once monthly to meet their family’s food needs. Choice pantry visitors indicated that the motivation to select healthy food items was impacted by both individual and situational influences, similar to retail environments. Just as moment-of-purchase and place-of-purchase factors influence the purchasing of food items in retail environments, situational factors, such as food availability and the ‘price’ of food items in point values, impacted healthy food selection at choice pantries. However, the stigmatization experienced by those who visit pantries differs quite dramatically from the standard shopping experience. Choice pantries would benefit from learning more about the psychosocial factors in their own pantries and adapting the environment to the desires of their users, rather than adopting widely disseminated strategies that encourage healthy food choices with little consideration of their unique clientele.