Fruit and vegetable vouchers in a rural community: Implementation and outcomes

"Ninos Sanos, Familia Sana," is a multi-faceted childhood obesity intervention study in central valley of California. This presentation describes the process of implementing a fruit and vegetable voucher in a low-income rural community, and preliminary data analysis on changes in food expense distribution and food purchasing habits over time and across groups. The fruit and vegetable voucher is the main component of an economic intervention aimed at increasing consumption of healthy foods. The implementation process involved selecting community partners, developing relationships, choosing a payment mechanism, and pilot testing the system. We chose to work with a local market and found that retail store buy-in and close cooperation with store owners and employees was critical to success. We also found that an electronic payment mechanism provides participants with spending flexibility and has a low administrative burden on both the project team and retail store. Effects of the voucher program are analyzed using grocery store scanner data. Grocery store scanner data is combined with food purchase receipts from non-partner stores. This combination of data has significant advantages over recall data and provides a more comprehensive picture of food purchases made within the household, allowing for a complete analysis of voucher effects. The paper explores preliminary data on food purchases and presents an analysis of change in food consumption patterns by food categories and adjustment in food purchasing habits over time and across groups. Acculturation, socioeconomic and demographic factors are additionally studied to explore its relationship to the adoption of these changes.