Shelter Feeding Facilities: Do They Provide The Necessary Nutrition For The Homeless?

If you were asked where a homeless individual could go for a warm nutritional meal you might respond by suggesting a Soup Kitchen. They are in fact quite common across the United States with a rich history stretching as far back as 1929 during the Great Depression. They are best described as shelter feeding facilities where food is usually offered for free to the homeless by volunteers or organizations. They are important, according to the Our Father’s House Soup Kitchen Association, not only because of the free meals they offer to the hungry and homeless but because they provide a place for the homeless to belong. However, though Soup Kitchens might provide meals to the homeless, this does not mean it meets the adequate nutrition needed by homeless individuals as many might assume.

According to public health reports, Soup Kitchens usually provide foods that are appropriate for emergencies or supplement to usual dietary intakes which does not meet all the nutritional needs required by the body. Although Soup Kitchens do provide free meals, they still do not meet the standard for good nutrition recommend by the World Health Organization (WHO). For example, in one New York study, it was discovered that the menus at Soup Kitchen can often fall short of nutritional recommendation. The lack of proper nutrition is further exasperated by the amount of food provided by Soup Kitchen’s which can typically only serve 1.4 meals per day per homeless person. Not to mention Soup Kitchen’s do not typically serve food all day long. Thus, 1.4 meals per day is far below the Harvard Health Publishing suggestion of 3 meals per day.

To tackle the issue of homelessness and nutrition than we must acknowledge where we can better focus our efforts. Thus, one way we can all start is to better educate ourselves on all facets of the matter. This includes exploring how the current systems which offer nutritional aid to the homeless, like Soup Kitchens, meet or do not meet nutritional requirements. But this also includes looking for ways in which we can help solve the issue. So I encourage our reader to look into the sources which I have gathered below and to explore the research for yourself. Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1580272/pdf/pubhealthrep00189-0014.pdf

https://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/foodsharing/intro.html#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20national%20survey,month%20previous%20to%20the%20survey.

Image sourced from:

https://heartsforthehomeless.org/challenges-of-proper-nutrition/