Healthy Pantry Nudges Project

Cars in line at City Square Food Pantry to pick up food

The Healthy Pantry Nudges Project aims to promote health and healthy eating habits by improving policies, systems, and environmental changes at food pantries. By increasing the availability of healthy food where food bank clients shop, this project increases the likelihood that our North Texas neighbors establish healthy eating habits. The healthy choice is made the easy choice!

Healthy Pantries

Healthy Pantries promote healthy eating by focusing on improving policy and system changes at pantries. This can include adopting a nutrition policy, incentivizing healthy foods chosen by shoppers, expanding hours, and fostering donor relationships that encourage nutritious donations.

Nudge Pantries

Nudge Pantries utilize strategies to provide nutrition education in the food pantry setting. Nudges are subtle environmental changes that make healthy foods more appealing and accessible to encourage better food choices.

What Nudge Strategies Can Look Like at Your Pantry

  • Food demonstrations at the pantry, nutrition education handouts
  • Recipe cards
  • Health promotion signage and shelf tags
  • Food bundling or appearance of abundance
  • A-frame signs with nutritional messaging
Cans on a shelf at a food pantry
Nutrition Handout Display And Signage Jan Pruitt
Food Bundling Jan Pruitt

How is this project effective?

  • Increased the amount of healthy foods chosen by pantry clients by 46%
  • Nudges increased the amount of healthy food items distributed by 56% per client on average
  • Increasing the availability of healthy food this project increases the likelihood that clients establish healthy eating habits

Nudge Pantry Overview Handout