A Tuesday evaluation found that federally-funded programs encouraging low-income people to eat more fresh produce are having positive effects on diets as well as the economy.
“These programs work,” said Amy Yaroch, the executive director of the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, and the head of the GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Program, Technical Assistance, Evaluation and Information Center, which led the evaluation. “There are so many wins across the board.”
The report examines data from two types programs: Nutrition incentive programs which give SNAP recipients more money for fruits and veggies; and produce prescription programs that provide fresh fruits and vegetable prescriptions to those at risk of food insecurity and chronic disease. All of the programs evaluated were funded by the USDA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP). The evaluation covered the program’s second year, which ran from Sept. 1, 2020 to Aug. 31, 2021.
People participating in incentive programs — which often match the amount that SNAP recipients spend on produce or subsidize their farm shares — reported consuming more fruit and vegetables than the average American adult, but they still ate less than the recommended amount, the report found. The report found that the more people participated in these programs, they ate more fruits and vegetables. The evaluation used a screening tool that was tested for reliability and validity, even though self-reported dietary data can be inconsistent.
The report also found that more than $20.9 million in incentives were distributed in GusNIP’s second year, generating more than $41 million in economic impact.
These findings are important because they push back against stereotypes about poor people’s food choices, Yaroch said. “I do think there’s a bit of this myth that low-income people don’t want healthy foods. And that’s not the case — everyone wants healthy food for their families.”
In Oregon, GusNIP funds were used to expand “double-up farm bucks” programs at grocery stores, especially in underserved communities, said Molly Notarianni, the executive director of the Farmers Market Fund, which coordinated these programs.
“Food insecurity in Oregon has doubled since the start of the pandemic and is currently at the highest level in a century,” she said. “The infusion of GusNIP funds could not have come at a better time, helping families bring home more fresh produce while supporting small farmers and local economies.”
According to the report, produce prescriptions showed promising signs of increasing food security and vegetable consumption. Only 27.5% of those surveyed said they were food-secure. However, 49% of respondents claimed they were food secure at the end. The proportion of people experiencing “very low food security” decreased by nearly half, the report found, while noting that the results should be interpreted with caution, since they came from a small subsample of participants.
The report found that even though participants in the produce-prescription programs reported eating more fruits and vegetables, they still consumed less than the general U.S. populace.
Yaroch stated that future evaluations will be able to draw from electronic health records in order to determine how prescription programs might be affecting specific health outcomes, such as body mass Index or A1C levels. This is a measure of average sugar levels.
Steven Chen, a physician and chief medical officer of the anti-poverty program ALL IN Alameda County, in California, said his prescription program, Recipe4Health, uses a “food as medicine” model to “treat, prevent, and reverse chronic conditions.” Participants get prescriptions that bring weekly free deliveries of locally and regeneratively grown fruit and vegetables for four months.
The program has provided produce prescriptions to approximately 1,900 people and distributed nearly 25,000 bags of food in less than two years. A smaller number of people participate in weekly group medical visits, which cover stress reduction and cooking. They also help to reduce social isolation.
The ALL IN program offers nutrition education to healthcare providers. It trains them to assess food security and refer patients for SNAP. Chen said the approach lets doctors get at the roots of diseases like diabetes, noting that he’s even been able to take patients off of insulin as a result of their participation in the program. “If we’re going to screen people for food insecurity, we’d better have something to offer them,” he said.
Source: Successful Farming
