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Supporting healthy shopping patterns among low-income New Yorkers
Supporting healthy shopping patterns among low-income New Yorkers
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- New York State Health Foundation, issuing body.
- Publication:
- New York, NY : New York State Health Foundation, December 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Access to Healthy Foods
Diet, Healthy
Poverty
New York
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Food insecurity—including poor nutrition—contributes to chronic and significant health problems. Lack of access to healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables has been a longstanding barrier for low-income communities and communities of color to act on recommended dietary guidance. As a result, diet-related diseases are especially acute in these communities. Low-income New Yorkers report eating only two servings of fruits and vegetables daily, less than half of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) recommendation of at least five per day. Nutrition incentive programs—such as New York City’s Health Bucks, which help Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients purchase more fresh fruits and vegetables—are proven to make healthy foods more affordable for low-income consumers and encourage healthy purchases. The New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) is supporting the expansion of nutrition incentive programs. But there are obstacles to scaling and improving current models, of which none act as a silver bullet for solving the food insecurity issues that too many New Yorkers face. For example, most of these programs are available only to people enrolled in SNAP. In addition, these benefits can only be redeemed at certain places, such as farmers markets, which may not be useful to New Yorkers who do not have access to such locations and typically purchase their food and other basic necessities at larger chain grocery stores. Seasonal incentive programs that can be used only at farmers markets are also potentially limited in creating long-lasting behavioral change. NYSHealth awarded Public Health Solutions a grant to help the New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy pilot an incentive program designed to be more accessible and to support long-term healthy shopping patterns. The Mayor’s Office of Food Policy took the lead in conducting a proof-of-concept study to benefit up to 4,000 food-insecure and/or low-income New Yorkers living in Brownsville and East New York, Brooklyn; the North Shore of Staten Island; and Morrisania in the South Bronx. NYSHealth funds specifically supported the Brownsville part of the pilot.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (8 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918402188106676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918402188106676