DALLAS — The food bank has long been looked at by many as an "emergency-only" option for your darkest days of need, but a new study in North Texas found it may actually benefit everyone if those in need make regular use of that service.

The research from UT Southwestern and the University of Dallas looked at users of the Crossroads Community Services food bank in Dallas over a period of several years and concluded that those who used the service consistently month-to-month, rather than on an emergency only basis, ended up in a better overall situation.

“What we found is that when clients came back every single month, as frequently as they were able to each month, their health was better and their food security was better,” said Dr. Sandi Pruitt, Ph.D., an associate professor at UT Southwestern and researcher on the study.

As a result, Pruitt said those clients were not only spending less money on food for their family but were also saving on health care costs, so they were able to put those funds instead toward improving their financial situation and paying other costs of living like rent and utilities.

Longtime Crossroads clients like Kimberly Nichols can attest to those positive effects.

“It takes away some of that anxiety,” said Nichols as she walked the grocery store-like aisles inside of Crossroads’ warehouse in Dallas.

Nichols said she’s been coming to Crossroads every month for a food pickup for about a year and a half now. In that time, she said the service has allowed her to greatly reduce her grocery bills and give her some much-needed peace of mind.

Nichols said she worked for the better part of 17 years in "corporate America" and never saw herself using a food bank at all, but that changed when she became a mother of three and her life had to change.

“Two of my youngest are special needs and so just kind of supporting them with what they need during the day and all their appointments and therapists and school meetings - it just didn’t lend itself to me going back to a traditional job,” said Nichols.

So, Nichols said the food bank has been there for her and her family as she’s tried to find a better work-motherhood balance. It’s allowed her to focus her family’s funds toward other monthly expenses and, as a result, deal with less stress-inducing debt.

She said those results have really made going to the food bank an easier thing, mentally and emotionally. After all, Nichols said it’s clear that many of her fellow users still have trouble taking the help; many even find it embarrassing.

“You do have people that go hungry, and so when you see people in line for something like food, which is a necessity, it makes you feel like, ‘OK, a need is being filled,’” said Nichols.

Leaders at Crossroads said that stigma about visiting a food bank is one they are constantly working to overcome with clients, and Dr. Pruitt said that is one of the biggest roadblocks to getting people into a pattern of long-term usage rather than emergency only.

“It’s good to encourage people to come back,” she said.

It really may be in everyone’s best interest to eliminate that stigma from the food bank, Dr. Pruitt said. 

The results of her study show cost reducing effects that could not only help those individuals visiting the food bank, but possibly society overall as many of those costs can result in the need for more social services and assistance programs.

“Providing food is a lot cheaper than providing medicine and providing medical care, so provision of food should be considered part of the public health,” said Dr. Pruitt.

Pruitt thinks more effort put into food assistance programs and more community-centered food banks like Crossroads being established, could also greatly aid in addressing a lot of the problems related to food insecurity - which is a very big problem in Texas.

According to Feeding Texas, one in seven Texans - more than 4 million people - are experiencing food insecurity.