The 2022 Minnesota Statewide Food Shelf Survey: Reported Availability of Healthy Foods and Importance of Culturally-specific Foods by Participant Demographic Characteristics

Objective: To determine whether shopper-reported availability of foods from Minnesota food shelves and the importance of cultural foods/cooking items differed by demographic characteristics. Methods: Cross-sectional survey of food pantry shoppers (n = 4,680) who visited more than or equal monthly with choice over food selection. Results: Hispanic and Black shoppers had higher odds of reporting produce, eggs, and cooking items were always available than White shoppers (odds ratio [OR] > 1.35; P < 0.001–0.02). The odds of Asian participants reporting that meat, poultry, and fish were always available were lower than White participants (OR, 0.55; P = 0.002). Asian, Black, Hispanic, and male shoppers had higher odds of indicating the importance of culturally-specific food and cooking item availability than their counterparts (White, females, respectively) (OR, 1.7–6.1; P <0.001). Conclusions and Implications: Inequities exist in the availability of healthy and culturally-specific foods in food pantries that could be addressed via food-sourcing policies/strategies and food bank distribution efforts.