food pantry

my classmate and i went out to a trenton pantry to survey their clients.  the trenton area is considered a "food desert," with few grocery stores and little access to fresh foods.  we'd been working with the food bank to develop and test a needs assessment survey, and today was our first time to use the instrument for reals.

it felt nice to win people's trust.  also, to see that the survey was confirming some of our hypotheses about food access.  it reminded me also, of the crazy maze that people have to navigate to get basic social services.  in policy school, it's easy to forget the people behind the econometrics of "program evaluation" and maybe why we wanted to come here in the first place.

although i sometimes joke that graduate school is poverty, i think my meager stipend is still 2 times higher than the highest income person i surveyed today.  so, there's a lot to be grateful for.  hopefully our work will help to make the food bank's programs and services better tailored to their clients' needs.