A sentiment and keyword analysis of college food pantry stigma among users and non-users

Food pantry stigma among college students has been documented as an issue that impacts the utili­zation of resources but has not been deeply investi­gated. The objective of this study was to explore sources of food pantry stigma to identify different strategies to encourage food pantry use, which has the potential to positively alter methods on cam­puses. This mixed-methods study was a branched (separate questions and responses from both food pantry users and nonusers), 51-item, online, Qualtrics survey that sampled randomly selected students from a rural university (n = 3,000) and recruited using flyers posted in food pantries on campus. Reported results include demographic characteristics, use of on-campus food pantries, a validated food insecurity questionnaire, food pantry self-stigma, and an adapted measure of self-stigma of seeking help, and affirming or nonaffirm­ing qualitative measures of food pantry stigma. Sentiment and keyword analyses were conducted by two researchers to analyze qualitative data to identify factors that influence food pantry stigma from food pantry users and nonusers. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Qual­itative data determined areas of stigma and aligned with the descriptive statistics on self-stigma and help-seeking measures. Among survey participants (n = 594), 35.7% of food-insecure students did not use food pantries. Users (M = 23.12, SD = 9.06) reported higher perceptions of food pantry stigma than nonusers (M = 15.79, SD = 3.85). Of the food pantry nonusers (n = 461), 322 identified the presence of stigma (69.85%). Sixty-six food pantry users (n = 97) identified the presence of stigma (68.04%). The keyword analysis highlighted poten­tial influences of food pantry stigma among all par­ticipants including power hierarchy, financial bur­den, embarrassment, and feeling superfluous. This study highlights influences of stigma and places an emphasis on changing current approaches in cam­pus food pantry implementation and dissemina­tion. Future studies could investigate the barriers and solutions to current messaging and implemen­tation of campus food pantries utilizing implemen­tation science experts and frameworks.