September is Hunger Action Month

September is Hunger Action Month, a nationwide effort to raise awareness about hunger and inspire action. Here at The Pantry, we are inspired every day by our clients and strive to provide an compassionate, dignified experience where they feel welcomed and heard. In fact, as part of our yearlong grant-funded strategic planning process, we recently surveyed clients to gain insight into their experience at The Pantry.  

We are very proud that our online survey, sent to 377 clients, was the first multilingual client survey in The Pantry’s history. Survey questions were both quantitative and qualitative and feedback was anonymous.  

Below are some key results from the survey: 

• 93% of clients say we meet their needs very well or better 
• 91% of clients shop twice a month or more  
• 74% of clients said that The Pantry is their main source of food  
• 80% of clients rely on us mostly for meat and produce  
• 73% of clients prefer non weekend hours 
• 55% of clients need more help connecting with other community resources  
• Inside shopping with appointment is the preferred shopping method  

Hunger Action Month

These results are being used to shape our programing and enhance our services. To date, we have implemented electronic appointment reminders and expanded the number of in-person shopping appointments. 

We are collaborating with and identifying additional partners to provide more dairy, proteins, prepared foods, and healthy produce. We are extremely grateful to our clients for their thoughtful suggestions and will continue to use their invaluable feedback to guide our future decisions. 

Continuing to improve our services is important to The Pantry’s mission of alleviating food insecurity and compassionately empowering our community. This Hunger Action Month, we invite you to help us meet our clients’ needs by making a monetary donation to The Pantry, or learning more about food waste and its impact on food insecurity at our special event with Spoonfuls, a food rescue organization, on September 12, 2024, at 7 PM. 

We hope that sharing our clients’ feedback will inspire you to act and help fight food insecurity in Franklin and beyond. 

With sincere gratitude for your ongoing support,  

Tina Powderly,  

Executive Director, Franklin Food Pantry 

For more information about the Franklin Food Pantry, visit   https://www.franklinfoodpantry.org/