Dusti Ridge leans on her cane and waits patiently for her number to be called at Bread for the City, a food bank in southeast Washington, D.C. When she hears "56," she steps into the nonprofit group's pantry to find out what she'll be eating for the next week.

Kale, green peppers, yellow tomatoes, and dried cherries—perfect for a favorite brown rice recipe—go into her shopping bag. So does a whole chicken. But she passes on canned green beans; too much salt, she says.

Ridge, 62, has been coming to the food bank once a month for more than a decade, and takes pride in choosing "exotic" foods that some of the charity's clients avoid—like the venison that was donated recently