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

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.