The International Institute of St. Louis opened its first food pantry to help bring nutritious foods to immigrants, refugees and other residents in the region.
The food pantry offers canned goods, fresh vegetables and fruits, meats, pasta, cereals and packaged items every Monday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the institute's headquarters on Arsenal Street. It also provides hygiene products and cleaning supplies.
Institute leaders partnered with Operation Food Search to bring the foods to the area because they saw an uptick in the need for food over the past year among their immigrant and refugee clients, said Maxwell Kelly, a community support manager at the International Institute of St Louis.
“Getting rid of food insecurity is something that's crucial to helping families to thrive and to be able to for us to be able to fulfill our mission and our obligation to them,” he said.
Each week, the institute can feed about 40 families. No reservations are needed to receive food, and families can choose what they want from the pantry.
“We are going to allow families to individually shop … this helps create a sense of dignity among the family, that they're actually able to go together as a unit, to take a moment to browse some shelves,” Kelly said. “It has more of a feeling of a shopping experience and less of a charitable experience.”
Providing food to the International Institute’s clients helps bring awareness to the issue of food insecurity among immigrants and refugees, said Brittni McElroy, agencies and partnership specialist at Operation Food Search.
“With everything that's going on … one less thing that these families [should] have to worry about is how they're going to eat for the day,” she said.
The pantry will also provide culturally appropriate foods like halal meats, chickpeas and lentils.
Newly arrived immigrants often go hungry because some foods in the country are unfamiliar, said Maria Jose Romo Palafox, an assistant professor of nutrition and dietetics at St. Louis University.
“One of the things that we consider a basic need that has to be met is, we start with having food period, then it's having enough food, then the next step is having familiar food.
“It might not be just the fact that there are foods here that we haven't encountered before, or there are foods in our home countries that we don't have here; there's also a difference in taste with the same product, same brand, same everything, and it doesn't taste the same,” she said.
International Institute leaders say they are committed to providing familiar foods so more people in the region feel comfortable.
“For the community at large and for our clients in general, making sure that the whole person is taken care of, whether that's through education or job development, immigration services, [food] is just another piece of the pie,” Kelly said.
