“Oh, this is the first time I’ve seen baby food here,” said Venita Hendrix, a young mother of two, as she carefully chose a half-dozen jars to put in her cart. Hendrix was picking up groceries at the ServeCity Food Pantry in Hamilton, Ohio, among the first in the state to convert to a “client choice” model. At ServeCity and five other pantries in Butler County — and a growing number throughout the state — clients move through aisles with shopping carts, choosing among the food items offered instead of being handed a carton of
pre-bagged food over a counter.

“Clients seem to like this system,” said Gary Gruver, food pantry director. “Before, they’d check in, get handed two bags of groceries, and then they’re out of here. Now, it’s more like a shopping experience. It’s more pleasant.” The pantry serves 1,100 to 1,200 clients a month. According to America’s Second Harvest, an estimated 22 to 25 million Americans use food pantries annually.

“The choice system is a good concept — it’s much more dignified for the clients,” said Dan Remley, Ohio State University Extension Educator in Family and Consumer Sciences and Community Development in Butler County. And, the traditional system often inadvertently resulted in wasted food and increased food insecurity, he said: Clients threw away foods they didn’t like or couldn’t use.

But pantries converting to a choice system found they needed guidelines to let clients know how much food they can take. So, Remley developed the “Rainbow of Choice” system, based on the Food Pyramid. At the pantry, foods are arranged according to food group. As Hendrix and other patrons move through the aisles, they refer to a 5-by-8-inch “Rainbow of Choice” laminated card indicating how much food they can choose from each group — grain, meat, dairy, fruit, vegetable, as well as “combination” and “miscellaneous.” Quantities are based on family size. Using their selection card, clients can choose among options available that day — rice, not macaroni; apple juice, not tomato; kidney beans, not lentils.

At the same time, Toni Gallagher, nutrition program assistant, is often on hand with samples and recipes based on foods available at the pantry.

“We’re trying to integrate nutrition education throughout the system,” Remley said. That benefits both clients and pantry. When one local pantry received a donation of 10,000 pounds of figs, Gallagher used figs in a series of food demonstrations, and they moved off the shelves faster than pantry officials could believe, Remley said.

Choice-based pantries also have started in Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, Montgomery, and Warren counties, many of which are using Remley’s Rainbow of Colors system.