title: Short-Term Effects of Traditional and Alternative Community Interventions to Address Food Insecurity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite the effects of food insecurity on health are well documented, clear governmental policies to face food insecurity do not exist in western countries. In Canada, interventions to face food insecurity are developed at the community level and can be categorized into two basic strategies: those providing an immediate response to the need for food, defined "traditional" and those targeting the improvement of participants' social cohesion, capabilities and management of their own nutrition, defined "alternative".
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of food insecurity interventions on food security status and perceived health of participants.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a longitudinal multilevel study implemented in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Participants were recruited in a two-stage cluster sampling frame. Clustering units were community organizations working on food insecurity; units of analysis were participants in community food security interventions. A total of 450 participants were interviewed at the beginning and after 9 months of participation in traditional or alternative food security interventions. Food security and perceived health were investigated as dependent variables. Differences overtime were assessed through multilevel regression models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants in traditional interventions lowered their food insecurity at follow-up. Decreases among participants in alternative interventions were not statistically significant. Participants in traditional interventions also improved physical (B coefficient 3.00, CI 95% 0.42-5.59) and mental health (B coefficient 6.25, CI 95% 4.15-8.35).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results challenge the widely held view suggesting the ineffectiveness of traditional interventions in the short term. Although effects may be intervention-dependent, food banks decreased food insecurity and, in so doing, positively affected perceived health. Although study findings demonstrate that food banks offer short term reprise from the effects of food insecurity, the question as to whether food banks are the most appropriate solution to food insecurity still needs to be addressed.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute, University of Montreal (IRSPUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada.|Public Health School, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.|Canada Research Chair in Community approaches and health inequalities, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Roncarolo
authors.affiliation: Agence de la santé et de services sociaux de la Montérégie, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Sherri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bisset
authors.affiliation: Public Health Research Institute, University of Montreal (IRSPUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada.|Public Health School, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.|Canada Research Chair in Community approaches and health inequalities, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.|Lea Roback Research Centre, Montreal Public Health Directorate, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Potvin
mesh_terms: D019058:Community Networks; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011792:Quebec