AUTHOR=Pérez Elsury Johanna , Carabali Mabel , Mercille Geneviève , Sylvestre Marie-Pierre , Roncarolo Federico , Potvin Louise 

TITLE=Characterizing Trends in the Use of Food Donations and Other Food-Related Community-Based Social Assistance Programs in a Cohort of New Food Bank Users in Quebec, Canada

JOURNAL=International Journal of Public Health

VOLUME=69

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.ssph-journal.org/journals/international-journal-of-public-health/articles/10.3389/ijph.2024.1605833

DOI=10.3389/ijph.2024.1605833

ISSN=1661-8564

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Objective:</bold> To characterize 12-month trends in the use of food donations and other food-related community-based social assistance programs (CB-SAPs) during the first year following the enrollment of new food bank (FB) users in Quebec, Canada.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> A cohort of 1,001 newly registered FB-users in Quebec from the Pathways Study were followed-up during 12-month following baseline assessment. Outcomes were monthly use of food donations and other food-related CB-SAPs. Main predictors were alternative food source utilization (AFSU) profiles: 1) exclusive-FB-users; 2) FB+fruit/vegetable-market-users; and 3) Multiple/diverse-AFS-users. Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and major life events. We fit Bayesian hierarchical mixed-effect models, accounting for spatial clustering, temporal correlation, and censoring.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> We observed an overall downward trend of food donation use among study completers (<italic>n</italic> = 745). Each AFSU profile had a distinctive monthly trend of food donation use, but probabilities of use across the three profiles overlapped, between 44% and 55%. The use of other food-related CB-SAPs was low and not correlated with AFSU profiles.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold><italic>De novo</italic> FB-users use food donations in different ways over time according to specific contextual AFSU profiles.</p>