By Charlotte Sutton
For The Diamondback

A University of Maryland study found that food banks and pantries must make changes in order to achieve food justice and solve the hunger crisis.

The study was part of a university team’s development of NourishNet: a technological toolbox aiming to strengthen food security. Through the project’s first phase, the study discovered ways to improve and reform the Prince George’s County food charity system by looking at three groups of the food supply chain: urban growers, food pantries and food pantry clients.

After surveying and analyzing the groups, the researchers suggested that food pantries could extend hours of operation and create more choice-based pantries to increase agency in food choices, which was an issue emphasized in the study.

Environmental science and policy senior lecturer Caroline Boules worked as a co-principal investigator on the study and said it was important to suggest ways to offer solutions for pantry clients impacted by a lack of agency in food choices. Many people surveyed in the study said they throw away the food that they receive from food banks that they aren’t interested in, she said.

[Prince George’s County food banks feeling pressure from high demand, loss of SNAP benefits]

“This idea of dignity and choice is a big deal,” Boules said.

This study began data collection in 2023, but the issue’s salience rapidly grew during this fall’s government shutdown, which delayed funding for federal food and nutrition programs.

Maya Chelminsky, a recent environmental science and policy graduate at this university, said she has concerns about food scarcity in Prince George’s County, including the lack of funding given to food pantries and new work requirements in SNAP benefit eligibility.

“I don’t foresee any systemic changes in food pantries happening anytime soon,” Chelminsky, who worked on the project, said. “Hopefully, there can be more access to fresh fruits and vegetables for low-income people or for SNAP users one day.”

The research project entered its second phase in February 2024 after receiving a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, which allowed researchers to start developing the NourishNet app.

[Gov. Wes Moore announces $62M for SNAP benefits]

Taking the findings of the study into account, co-principal study investigator and information college professor Vanessa Frías-Martínez is helping the NourishNet team develop FoodLoops, an app that will be used to optimize surplus food distribution to food insecure people and measure the potential effect on improving food access.

In an effort to promote dignity in using the food pantry system and make the process more human, Frías-Martínez said the app will provide information about the available products at a food pantries, where pantries are and how to use public transit to get to them. She said the team hopes to pilot the app in the spring.

“It’s providing more information to those who might need to use a food pantry,” she said. “If you can just download an app and check where the food pantries are, you don’t need to ask anybody.”