Nutrition assistance programs and increasing local food access for low-income communities

This goal of this project is evaluate linkages between food insecurity and the local food economy by examining municipal-level policy interventions that both increase access to healthy food for low-income consumers as well as incentivize the purchase of locally produced agricultural products. We investigate the degree to which nutrition assistance programs can serve as vehicles for improving low-income consumers access to locally-produced, healthy food and to what degree such programs could be scaled up by the City of Austin to reach more people. This research primarily consists of evaluating incentive programs that provide beneficiaries a discount for using their SNAP/WIC benefits to purchase produce at local farmers markets. In addition, we examine how farmers market SNAP/WIC incentive programs might be expanded to other retailers, such as CSAs, corner stores, mobile vendors, or traditional grocery stores.