Study finds Chapel Hill, NC, soup kitchen serves nutritious meals.
Soup kitchens attempt to improve the food security of low-income individuals, but the results of their efforts are rarely researched. We focused our study on the Inter-Faith Council Soup Kitchen (IFC) near the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC) in Chapel Hill, NC. The IFC uses no centralized nutrition planning and relies heavily on volunteer cooks, yet we found their meals to be highly nutrient-dense when averaged over a 1-month time frame and compared with the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) and the Daily Reference Values (DRVs). In fact, the only nutrients needing improvement were vitamin D, folate, and calcium. The number of servings per meal was also substantially more than one third of the US Department of Agriculture Food Guide Pyramid recommendations, except for dairy at all meals, vegetables at breakfast, and fruit at dinner.
Eppich
Simone
S
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. seppich@cvhc.org
Fernandez
Claudia Plaisted
CP
D000328:Adult; D002149:Energy Intake; D005504:Food Analysis; D005522:Food Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008903:Minerals / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis; D009657:North Carolina; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D009753:Nutritive Value; D014815:Vitamins / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis
D008903:Minerals; D014815:Vitamins