Table 8.

A summary of the integrated mixed‐method synthesis of the independent quantitative and qualitative study findings

Synthesised qualitative findings	Textual description of quantitative findings	Mixed‐method synthesis with recommendations
1. Limited food options, particularly fresh foods and meat, and inadequate quantity to make meals and for families, limits food parcels ability to meet their users’ nutritional requirements. Increasing food variety is recommended 2. Food bank users recognise healthy eating; however, it is not prioritised, thus gratitude for food, regardless of its nutritional value, is apparent. Implementing consistent nutritional guidelines at food banks is advised	Whether food parcels meet national nutritional requirements for nutrients and food groups is inconsistent. However, food parcels do typically exceed energy, carbohydrate, sugar, and salt recommendations, yet are often insufficient in fruit, vegetables and various micronutrients, including vitamin D, calcium and iron. An intervention aiming to improve food parcel nutrition increased fruit and vegetable variety	Nutritionally inadequate food parcels can be explained by the charitable nature of food banks, often limiting the variety and quantity of food options. Improving the nutritional quality of food parcels should focus on increasing food variety, such as increasing meat, fruit and vegetable content, along with implementing nutritional guidelines, to allow consistency
3. Pre‐packaged parcels prevent food meeting health, cultural and social dietary needs. Therefore, providing choice for individual preferences is essential for mitigating food insecurity 4. Foodbanks are a lifeline; however, reports of out‐of‐date food and users still acquiring socially‐unacceptable strategies to reduce hunger (e.g. prioritising children, missing meals, multiple food banks), indicates absence of food security. Ensuring safe food, of sufficient quantity, is crucial	Participation in food bank based diabetes interventions, including prepackaged parcels significantly improved the food insecurity status and dietary quality of food bank users with diabetes. However, the incidence of food insecurity was still greater than in the general populations	Food banks struggle to meet individual dietary needs and in socially acceptable ways, thus allowing food security is limited. Positive outcomes from diabetes‐specific food parcels, and health‐related dietary needs often unmet by food banks, supports benefit of tailoring food parcels to meet individual preferences
5. Food parcels can increase dietary quantity and/or quality. However, food banks are insufficient for alleviating hunger, particularly for repeat and multiple‐person household users	Despite food parcels contributing significantly to users diets and improving the nutritional quality of parcels having been shown to positively influence diet intake, overall dietary quality often remains insufficient	As a sole intervention, food banks do not eliminate the heightened food insecurity and poor diets of food bank users. Continuing effort to reduce diet‐related inequalities of food bank users is required, particularly among repeat and multiple‐person household users