School-Based Food Pantries & the COVID-19 Pandemic: Pantry Organizers Suggest Both Challenges and Opportunities

ABSTRACT To address food insecurity concerns presented by pandemic school closures, many communities relied on school mobile markets or on-site pantries. However, little scholarship has investigated how these programs adapted to the challenges presented by the pandemic. To address this absence, eleven food bank program coordinators who collectively manage over 200 school pantries were interviewed by phone. Our findings revealed a number of post-pandemic changes in the food distribution system and challenges in coordinating pantry efforts as on-site teacher-organizers shifted to remote learning. These findings suggest potential advantages to sharing best practices from schools who were successful in their crisis response.