Section 12.1.1

12.1.1 - Stability of Exisiting Food Programs

Agencies were asked if their food programs are stable or facing problems that threaten their food programs' continued operation and, if so, which of several listed factors were the causes of the threat. Agencies were asked to check more than one reason, if more than one was appropriate. Table 12.1.1 shows the percentage of food programs affected by each of the factors cited.

Table 12.1.1

STABILITY OF EXISTING FOOD PROGRAMS

	Pantry Programs	Kitchen Programs	Shelter Programs
Programs facing one or more problems that threaten their continued operation	19.8%	21.7%	25.3%
SAMPLE SIZE (N)	12,468	2,853	2,131

Nature of the problem¹
Problems related to funding	67.9%	74.8%	87.4%
Problems related to food supplies	39.0%	33.7%	16.1%
Problems related to paid staff or personnel	16.5%	30.3%	34.6%
Problems related to volunteers	32.4%	26.5%	13.1%
Community resistance	3.6%	7.1%	11.4%
Other problems	12.9%	12.7%	8.7%
SAMPLE SIZE (N) - Programs facing problems	2,350	534	467

Source
This table was constructed based on usable responses to Questions 17 and 18 of the agency survey.

Notes
All usable responses were weighted as described in Chapter 3 and in the Technical Appendix volume to represent all emergency food programs of the A2H network. The sample sizes (N) also include missing data.

For programs facing one or more problems that threaten their continued operation, missing, don't know, and refusal responses combined are 2.4% for pantry programs, 1.5% for kitchen programs, and 1.0% for shelter programs.

For nature of problems, missing, don't know, and refusal responses combined are 2.5% for pantry programs, 2.7% for kitchen programs, and 2.7% for shelter programs.

1. Multiple responses were accepted.

As Table 12.1.1 shows, 19.8% of the pantries, 21.7% of the kitchens, and 25.3% of the shelters believe they are facing one or more problems that threaten their continued operation. Those problems include:

Of the programs facing threats, 67.9% of the pantries, 74.8% of the kitchens, and 87.4% of the shelters referred to funding issues as a threat; 39.0% of the pantries, 33.7% of the kitchens, and 16.1% of the shelters indicated food supplies as a threat to their continued operation.
30.3% of the threatened kitchens and 34.6% of the threatened shelters identified issues related to paid staff or personnel as a threat; 32.4% of the pantries and 26.5% of the kitchens stated that volunteer-related problems posed a threat.