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NEFPAT with a flowchart of blue boxes and a yellow Toolkit Strategy banner

Part of the SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions Toolkit.*

The Nutrition Environment Food Pantry Toolkit is a PSE change intervention designed to create pantry spaces where the healthy choice is the easy choice and that promote dignity and inclusivity. The toolkit includes site implementation materials that support pantries and technical assistance providers in carrying out small and large-scale interventions specific to food distribution styles, pantry layout, promotion techniques of healthful foods, variety of fruits and vegetables available, accessibility of information about community resources, and meeting the needs of diverse pantry audiences. Pantry-level interventions are meant to be low or no-cost. The toolkit includes the Nutrition Environment Food Pantry Assessment Tool (NEFPAT), a validated environmental assessment that quantifies the nutrition environment of food pantries. It also includes NEFPAT-user training materials.

Developer
University of Illinois
Year
2018
Funding Source
USDA. SNAP-Ed.
Free Material
Yes
Cost ($)
$0.00
SNAP-Ed Toolkit Classification
Research-tested
Evidence
  • Evaluated
Evaluation Information
The toolkit implementation materials are considered a practice-tested intervention (see Intervention Reach and Adoption and Evaluation Indicators sections for statistics in IL.) In a peer-reviewed Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior publication, the NEFPAT was found to be a content valid and interrater reliable instrument for evaluating the food pantry nutrition environment. The overall tool and each of its objectives had high content validity when evaluated by emergency food experts. The average rating of each objective was 3.9 out of 4.0, ± 0.1. Interviews with pilot-testers indicated NEFPAT was positively received and a valuable asset in the field. Pilot-testers suggested minor changes to increase clarity and collect pantry characteristics. Pilot-testers found that observations took ~20–30 minutes to complete, with additional time for pantry engagement. Developers determined that inter-rater reliability for NEFPAT was above the strong threshold (>0.7).
Evaluation Framework Indicators
Review date
Internal Notes

*SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions: An Obesity Prevention Toolkit for States is a compilation of interventions. The toolkit was developed by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, The Association of SNAP-Ed Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Training and Research Translation (Center TRT), and the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the USDA. It is designed and updated to help state SNAP-Ed administrative and implementing agencies identify evidence-based obesity prevention programs and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies and interventions to include in their SNAP-Ed plans.

Reviewer Initials
MR