Advancing Cultural Responsiveness in Hunger Relief Barriers, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Advancing Cultural Responsiveness in Hunger Relief Barriers, Assessment, and Improvement Opportunities for Food Shelves

GOOD FOODS IN THE GOOD FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER

The Food Group’s As new immigrants and refugees • Involvement in Cultural started arriving in Minnesota in greater numbers, it became clear Competency that food shelves needed help meeting their needs The Food Group started • providing food boxes to Somali clients at partner food shelves Program expanded to include • West African, Latino, and SE Asian boxes in addition to East African

Cultural Competency Needs Assessment Participating Agencies : Salvation Army • In 2012, The Food Group conducted a needs North, Salvation Army NEED, assessment with the help of several agency Salvation Army Eastside, ICA Food partners, food shelf clients, and community Shelf, Good in The Hood, Hallie Q leaders Brown, Waite House, Centro Inc, Keystone Community • The goal was to assess barriers immigrants Services, CEAP , CAPI USA, The and refugees face when accessing the hunger Aliveness Project, Rescue Now relief system and create recommendations to Services, Brian Coyle, and further advance cultural competence in the Neighborhood hunger relief community House

Barriers to Cultural Competency Agency Perspective Procurement and Cost of Food • Language Barriers • Lack of Knowledge of Culturally • Appropriate Foods Client Perspective Pre-packaged Food at Food Shelves • Appointments • Stigma About Using a Food Shelf • Apprehension About Paperwork • Unfamiliar Location, Staff, and • Volunteers

Suggested Solutions From the needs assessment, The Food • Group’s Agency Advisory Board developed the following suggested solutions: Sourcing Familiar and Appropriate • Foods Walk-In Distribution Models • Choice Model Shopping • Outreach and Education • Collaboration with Diverse Ethnic • Groups Since the beginning of this year, The Food Group has piloted the Cultural Competency In order to help implement these • toolkit with: recommendations, The Food Group received CEAP , VEAP , North Point and Christian a grant from the U of M to create a more Cupboard concrete Cultural Competency Toolkit

What is Cultural Responsiveness? An ability to interact, learn from and relate respectfully to people from our own and other cultures This is a continuous process of learning and responding to the cultural contexts of the communities and people you serve.

Why is it Important & Relevant for Food Shelves? Over the past three decades, MN’s demographics have diversified Source: Tabulated by the MN State Demographic Center from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Presented by state demographer Susan Brower at the Minnesota Department of Administration January 28 th , 2014

Common barriers  Bias that western nutrition and way of life is superior to others  Accessibility & availability of familiar food  Prepackaged food rather than choice  Appointment needed to access food  Stigma attached to using a food shelf  Language barrier  Apprehension about paperwork and data collection Findings from The Food Group needs assessment on cultural competency in agencies (2012). Through focus groups, agency interviews, and community meetings we discovered the above barriers to be most prevalent.

What Can We Do? In 2012, The Food Group conducted a needs assessment on cultural competency in agencies. Through focus groups, agencies interviews, and community meetings we discovered the above stratifies to be most effective.

Open & Respectful Atmosphere Staff & volunteers create an open, respectful, and comfortable atmosphere for all food shelf guests.

Understand Who You Serve Know the demographics of your service area and those you are serving. Learn and listen from the community and those visiting the food shelf. Learn from Demographic Maps Advisory Groups Focus Groups Listen & Gain Feedback

Have Available Translation Not being able to communicate is frustrating and can cause misunderstanding. Hire staff or recruit volunteers to help with communication barriers. Strive for the cultural background of your staff & volunteers to reflect those you are serving.

Choice Model Shopping The ability to select foods that are familiar is very important. It provides a more comfortable and dignified experience and avoids distributing foods that are unfamiliar. “By making our entire inventory available to our clients we are able to meet as many needs as possible.” -Christine Pulver Keystone Community Services

Walk-In Hours Available Having an option in addition to scheduled appointments breaks down communication and transportation barriers “Walk -in hours have helped our food shelf serve more people from diverse backgrounds by providing flexibility and approachability. The need to schedule an appointment at all may be daunting and unfamiliar concept.” -Asha Mohamud & Christine Miller Neighborhood House

Sourcing Familiar Foods Culturally Specific Foods: What Do I Buy? West African East African SE Asian Latino Fufu Flour Goat Meat Rice Noodles Masa Garri Lentils Rice Flour Dried Beans Maggi Cubes Pasta Jasmine Rice Rice Definition of Culturally Specific Foods: The type of food items cultural/ethnic communities request and/or food that can be used to make culturally specific meals. Some examples may include: rice, beans, salsa, fish sauce, Asian sauces, and goat meat. Universal food items that can be used to make culturally specific meals may include: flour, oil, or sugar.

Additional Strategies Example: Find resources already translated or work Example: Identify with a volunteer active community groups Example: Identify stigma and spread the word on food shelf procedures

Additional Resources www.thefoodgroupmn.org

Additional Resources Staff and Volunteer trainings on how to be Cultural Responsive when working in a Multicultural World Our staff will come out and give a presentation on cultural awareness and best practices for volunteers and staff working in a multicultural world; What to do, What not to do, How to respond and overcome barriers. Sourcing Guidance & Assistance The Food Group offers culturally specific foods on our bulk purchasing list; however, we are available to help identify appropriate foods and troubleshoot creative solutions for sourcing and increasing donations. On-site Consulting & Evaluation We offer advice and help with identifying and planning strategies as well as tools to measure impact. Please use The Food Group as a resource and contact us with more questions.

Food Shelves & Partners Involved North Point Healthy & Wellness Center Brian Coyle Community Center Rescue Now Services CAPI USA Salvation Army Central NEED CEAP Salvation Army Eastside Centro Inc Salvation Army North Good in The Hood The Aliveness Project Hallie Q Brown Community Center University of Minnesota Department of ICA Foodshelf Family Medicine & Community Health Isuroon Project Waite House Keystone Community Services Neighborhood House All of the above organizations either participated in the 2012 Cultural Competency Needs Assessment Study, served as advisors in creating the cultural competency tool kit in 2014, or both.

Panel: Advancing Cultural Responsiveness in Hunger Relief Pictures can also be presented more dramatically in widescreen. Panel: Advancing Cultural Responsiveness in Hunger Relief Marny Xiong, The Food Group Asha Mohamud, Francis Basket Laura Skubic, The Food Group Christine Miller, Neighborhood House Clare Brumback, CEAP

Contact Us Marny Xiong, The Food Group Asha Mohamud, Francis Basket 763-450-4211 651-789-3670 mxiong@thefoodgroupmn.org amohamud@neighb.org Christine Miller, Neighborhood House Laura Skubic, The Food Group 651-789-2539 763-450-3895 cmiller@neighb.org lskubic@thefoodgroupmn.org Clare Brumback, CEAP 763-450-3666 clare.brumback@ceap.com