Incentivizing SNAP users toward healthy food alternatives

Through a new partnership and a $3.77 million USDA Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) grant, the University of Delaware’s Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) will help evaluate the effectiveness of incentives at farmer’s markets, helping to make locally grown food more accessible and affordable for underserved families.

Partnering with Wholesome Wave, Allison Karpyn, assistant director, CRESP, will be looking to help food-insecure families in 17 states and the District of Columbia gain access to fresh fruits and vegetables through discounts and incentive programs.

This grant is designed to:

• assist 110,000 SNAP consumers;
• partner with 32 community-based nonprofit organizations; and
• benefit over 3,400 small and mid-sized farm vendors.

As a subgrantee, CRESP will assess the fruit and vegetable purchase and consumption of participating SNAP consumers in order to better understand the nutritional impacts, costs and outcomes of these initiatives at farmers markets.

The center will evaluate the incentive programs through sophisticated statistical techniques and a multi-site randomized controlled trial. This three-year project will represent the nation’s largest randomized controlled trial of the impact of incentives for fruits and vegetables at farmers markets.