Crossroads typical pantry procedures
Clients can visit Crossroads pantry once each month and select food for up to 21 meals for each person in their household. Clients select food with a pantry staff member on a computer with a live Salesforce inventory system (Salesforce Inc., San Francisco, CA). The Salesforce interface uses a point system created by registered dietician nutritionists, that considers the age, gender, and activity level of each member of the household and indicates how many of each type of food group clients can select based on their nutritional needs. Clients are told how many points they have, and each available food item has a point value. After clients make food selections, their list is printed, and they take a grocery cart through the physical pantry aisles, like a grocery store. At checkout, pantry provisions are bagged, and a volunteer assists the client to their vehicle. Participants followed these same procedures during the study, except that study staff and/or student research assistants met the clients at pantry checkout and helped the participant load their vehicle, at which point clients were able to ask any questions and were reminded of the date and time of their follow-up appointment.