Protein structure and function

Protein

The Lakeview Pantry is a food pantry on the north side of Chicago. Their website is: (http://www.lakeviewpantry.org/). The pantry was established in 1970 and provides food to those residents living below the poverty level. This food pantry receives some of its food from donations and also from the Greater Chicago Food Depository (http://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/site/PageServer). The Lakeview Pantry has several programs to help feed the city's hungry. One of the programs the pantry sponsors is their Home Delivery Program which began in 1989 and now serves over 190 people per month. This is the program that will be evaluated for the purposes of this paper. Since the recipients of this program are home bound and generally elderly or sick, it is important that they do not suffer from hunger or improper nutrition because of their immobility.

Since the pantry's website does not list the types of food delivered to the recipients of this program, a call needed to be made to get this type of information. The person listed on their website is Jenny Dwyer and she was available and kind enough to answer questions regarding the types of food distributed by their home delivery service. In speaking with her, she said that many people assume that food pantries only stock and distribute non-perishable foods. This is not the case with food pantries today as they are equipped with industrial sized freezers that can easily store meat for distribution also. Since deliveries are made to each household once a month, it is important that the meat is frozen in order to keep it from spoiling.

Ms. Dwyer was asked what other sources of proteins the pantry provides in addition to meat. We know that lean mean is a good source of protein, but it is not the only source of protein and for those recipients of the program on restricted diets or those who are vegetarians, meat will not be an option. So, the other major sources of proteins that the pantry distributes for this program are: peanut butter, whole grain cereals and breads, canned and dry beans, cheese, eggs, brown rice and eggs.

Based on the list of protein sources other than meats, the pantry is doing a fairly good job of providing an adequate amount of protein to the recipients. The recipients receiving food distributions on a weekly basis will probably fare better than the recipients of the Home Delivery Service and this is because deliveries are made only once a month. This means that these people will have to learn how to make the food received last an entire month and some foods such as eggs and other perishables may not remain as fresh after a month.