Background
At Lantern, we believe that every child and family deserves healthy food. We’re a national organization, but our roots are in Colorado–where 1 in 3 families has trouble getting healthy, affordable food.
So we started in our own backyard: Denver. We’re working with national and local experts on food and nutrition security–and we’re using our proven method of putting vital information directly into parents’ fingertips through text messages.
This pilot program aims to connect families to federal resources such as WIC and SNAP, local resources like food distribution sites and state/local agencies, and to help parents feel supported, not stigmatized, as they do their best for their families.
There are many programs, both national and locally, to help families get the food they need–but many families aren’t participating. Often, they simply don’t know these programs exist or that they’re eligible.
MEAL is an opt-in text message program for all parents in the Denver metro area in Colorado who need help getting food for their families. Participants receive approximately 1-2 text messages per week with connections to both federal and local resources.
Through surveys and simple questions via text message, we evaluate the impact of our messages and use feedback to ensure we’re sharing the information that families need most.
Engagement
The program launched in October 2023 and to date, more than 1,470 caregivers have opted to receive the messages, including approximately 12% of our Lantern families in Denver County.
While MEAL messages are designed to be valuable to caregivers without requiring individuals to click on the linked resources, we can identify messages that resonated with caregivers by looking at the rate at which families viewed the linked resources. Messages connecting families to free food distribution, especially around the holidays, yielded click rates of 80+ percent, with some exceeding 100% (meaning some families clicked these links multiple times).
Impact
Lantern has evaluated the MEAL program through a variety of feedback mechanisms, including mobile-friendly surveys, text responses from families, and 25 in-depth interviews with participants, conducted by an outside evaluator. From these efforts, we have learned that:
- MEAL increased awareness of both local and federal food resources:
- 95% of survey respondents reported becoming more aware of local resources due to MEAL messages.
- 10 out of 12 initial interviewees agreed that MEAL messages have prompted them to engage with food resources, something they might not have done otherwise.
- Nearly 75% of survey respondents shared that they became more aware of federal food resources due to MEAL.
- MEAL succeeded at encouraging people to use both local and federal food resources:
- Follow-up survey data showed a significant increase in the percentage of families receiving food and/or meal support from a Denver-based organization.
- Data also show that MEAL succeeded at encouraging people to use federal food resources, albeit to a lesser extent than local resources as relatively more participants were already aware of WIC and SNAP at the beginning of the program.
- MEAL is reducing food insecurity, and changing eating behaviors for families:
- 75% of survey respondents report that MEAL messages have helped reduce their food insecurity.
- 80% of survey respondents report that MEAL messages have helped increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables.
- 66% of survey respondents report that they have tried new foods as a result of MEAL messages.
- MEAL is successfully reaching families in need, and they appreciate it:
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- “The food resources helped a lot… after my job closed, our finances were affected, I confess that I took advantage of every food resource message I received.”
- ”They just make it a little easier to find some resources if you’re struggling.”
- ”I think Lantern is doing an amazing job. The messages are as valuable as they get thank you.”
- “The resources that I have found the most helpful has been when food banks are having distribution that I had no idea about and they always seem to comment the perfect timing because our snap monthly benefit was already depleted and we were in need of food to finish out the rest of the month. Also, the reminders of fruit and vegetable intake for children has very much helped increase my children’s fruit and vegetable intake and healthier eating. And this year, we are actually going to to buy some seeds and planets and grow some squash, zucchini and hopefully tomatoes. Also thanks to these text messages that we have been receiving for the last year or more I believe.”