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When the Cupboards Are Bare: Nudging Food Pantry Clients to Healthier Foods

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  • Norbert Wilson

Abstract

Marketing researchers have a great opportunity to help people who live in food insecure households and the food pantries that serve them. Food pantries are private organizations that help fill the food gap for people who live in poverty. Client-choice food pantries permit clients to select foods of varying degrees of healthiness. Clients, who are characterized as vulnerable consumers, may tend toward less healthy foods, in part due to compensatory consumption. Pantry organizers are interested in finding unobtrusive ways to nudge clients to healthier products. However, no research exists that explores the use of nudges from behavioral economics and consumer research in food pantries. In this article, a series of possible nudges are presented to begin analysis in client-choice food pantries and evaluate them via the CAN (convenient, attractive, and normalize) approach. Beyond food pantries, this article suggests more research of the choices of people living in poverty.

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  • Norbert Wilson, 2016. "When the Cupboards Are Bare: Nudging Food Pantry Clients to Healthier Foods," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 125-133.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jacres:doi:10.1086/684476
    DOI: 10.1086/684476
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    2. Koert van Ittersum & Brian Wansink, 2016. "The Behavioral Science of Eating: Encouraging Boundary Research That Has Impact," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 5-14.
    3. Michael A. Long & Lara Gonçalves & Paul B. Stretesky & Margaret Anne Defeyter, 2020. "Food Insecurity in Advanced Capitalist Nations: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, May.
    4. Wendy Attaya Boland & Ingrid M. Martin & Marlys J. Mason, 2020. "In search of well‐being: Factors influencing the movement toward and away from maladaptive consumption," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1178-1194, December.
    5. Cureton, Colin & King, Robert P. & Warren, Cael & Grannon, Katherine Young & Hoolihan, Courtney & Janowiec, Mark & Nanney, Marilyn S., 2017. "Factors associated with the healthfulness of food shelf orders," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 124-131.

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