Reporting from the field, it’s notable how in 2020, Healthy Eating Research (HER) introduced nutrition guidelines that were crafted with the explicit intent of being easily adoptable by food banks. Their aspiration was to see these guidelines embraced by members of Feeding America within a span of five years. This vision is gradually turning into reality.

Remarkably, as per the data accumulated by More Than Food Consulting, which drew from sources like Feeding America’s Network Activity Report and Partnership for a Healthier America, an impressive tally of 101 food banks across the nation have already started implementing the HER guidelines.

The levels of adoption, however, vary among these food banks. According to a survey conducted by Feeding America in May, out of 85 food banks that responded, 61% are actively employing the guidelines, while another 24% are in the process of planning their implementation. A significant trend noted is that the majority of these food banks (59%) are using the guidelines primarily to categorize their food inventory. This unified approach is pivotal in establishing a more consistent understanding of what constitutes nutritious food across different food banks.

Prior to this, there was no shortage of diverse nutrition ranking systems and methodologies, which often led to discrepancies in defining healthy food. For instance, Feeding America’s “Foods to Encourage” (F2E) system was more binary, categorizing foods simply as ‘yes’ or ‘no’, whereas the “Supporting Wellness at Pantries” (SWAP) employed a tiered system.

In alignment mostly with SWAP, the HER guidelines classify foods based on their content of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars, and then place them in either green, yellow, or red categories. While categorizing certain items like fresh produce (consistently green) is straightforward, the process becomes more complex with items like donated cans, a probable reason why only 22% of food banks have managed to categorize over 76% of their inventory so far.