Reducing food insecurity in Kingston: An evaluation of the Good Food Box program

A food-buying club called "The Good Food Box" was initiated by members of the Kingston community in 1995 to address food insecurity.;The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Good Food Box program. The study had three objectives: (i) to determine whether the Good Food Box customers have food insecurity; (ii) to determine whether the Good Food Box program reduces food insecurity; and (iii) to determine the nature and extent of customer satisfaction with the program.;These objectives were addressed through a cross-sectional survey and a pre/post survey. Telephone interviews were conducted with 73 customers who bought a Good Food Box in September of 1996.;More than half of the respondents experienced household-level food insecurity and approximately one third lived in households with individual-level food insecurity. An even larger proportion were at risk of having food insecurity because of their low incomes. A significant proportion of the pre/post survey respondents revealed a change in household-level food insecurity status from "insecure" to "secure" at a two month follow-up. The majority of respondents reported they were happy with the Good Food Box program.;Several recommendations are made for future program planning that focus on enhancing the program's potential to address food insecurity and evaluate its progress toward this goal. These include developing a customer database to track purchasing patterns, monitoring service delivery to identify problems in the implementation of the program that prevent delivery of intended services to the target population, making the program more accessible, and attracting more people with low incomes because they have a higher risk of food insecurity. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).