Section 9.2.1

9.2.1 - Satisfaction With Services at Food Programs

Clients were asked how satisfied they were with the amount, variety, and overall quality of food provided at the emergency food programs. Clients were also asked how often they were treated with respect by the staff of those programs. Table 9.2.1 summarizes the findings.

Table 9.2.1

SATISFACTION WITH SERVICES AT FOOD PROGRAMS

	Adult Clients Who Pick Up Food at a Pantry	Adult Clients at a Kitchen	Adult Clients at a Shelter	Adult Clients at All Program Sites
Level of satisfaction with the following aspects of the service provided to clients or others in the household:
Amount of Food Provided
Very satisfied	63.8%	62.5%	54.7%	63.1%
Somewhat satisfied	29.9%	28.5%	31.5%	29.8%
Somewhat dissatisfied	4.5%	5.7%	8.0%	4.9%
Very dissatisfied	1.8%	3.4%	5.7%	2.2%
TOTAL	100%	100%	100%	100%

Variety of Food Provided
Very satisfied	62.8%	56.7%	44.1%	61.0%
Somewhat satisfied	30.6%	32.7%	34.7%	31.1%
Somewhat dissatisfied	5.1%	6.3%	14.4%	5.7%
Very dissatisfied	1.5%	4.3%	6.8%	2.1%
TOTAL	100%	100%	100%	100%

Overall Quality of Food Provided
Very satisfied	66.6%	58.4%	47.3%	64.5%
Somewhat satisfied	29.3%	33.8%	37.1%	30.3%
Somewhat dissatisfied	2.8%	4.0%	9.9%	3.4%
Very dissatisfied	1.3%	3.7%	5.7%	1.8%
TOTAL	100%	100%	100%	100%

How often clients are treated with respect by the staff who distribute food
All of the time	86.6%	79.2%	68.1%	84.6%
Most of the time	5.6%	11.1%	16.9%	6.9%
Some of the time	2.4%	6.3%	13.2%	3.4%
Never	0.4%	0.8%	0.8%	0.4%
Never came before	5.2%	2.7%	0.9%	4.6%
TOTAL	100%	100%	100%	100%
SAMPLE SIZE (N)	24,436	5,441	2,882	32,759

Source
This table was constructed based on usable responses to Questions 53 and 54 of the client survey.

Notes
The percentages presented in this table are based only on usable responses, excluding missing, don't know, and refusal responses. All usable responses were weighted as described in Chapter 3 and in the Technical Appendix volume to represent all emergency food clients of the A2H network. The sample sizes (N) also include missing data.

For amount of food provided, missing, don't know, and refusal responses combined are 5.7% for pantry clients, 3.1% for kitchen clients, 1.2% for shelter clients, and 5.1% for all clients.

For variety of food provided, missing, don't know, and refusal responses combined are 6.1% for pantry clients, 3.4% for kitchen clients, 1.5% for shelter clients, and 5.5% for all clients.

For overall quality of food provided, missing, don't know, and refusal responses combined are 6.5% for pantry clients, 3.1% for kitchen clients, 1.4% for shelter clients, and 1.2% for all clients.

For client treatment by staff, missing, don't know, and refusal responses combined are 2.1% for pantry clients, 1.5% for kitchen clients, 0.9% for shelter clients, and 1.9% for all clients.

Across all three kinds of emergency food programs, the level of satisfaction among their clients is high. 92.9% of the clients are either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the amount of the food they receive at the programs. Client satisfaction with specific aspects of the programs follows:

92.1% of the clients are either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the variety of the food.
94.8% of the clients are either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with overall quality of the food.
84.6% of the clients state that they are treated with respect by the staff all of the time.