Tracking the Use of Free Fruit and Vegetable Coupons Given to Families and Assessing the Impact on Children’s Consumption

Abstract

Many American communities are lacking healthy options when it comes to children’s nutrition. Poor nutrition in childhood can lead to obesity, which persists into adulthood and is linked to several chronic diseases including coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Thus, increasing children’s fruit and vegetable consumption has become an important focus among practitioners, policymakers and researchers. There is a developing literature examining a variety of methods to increase children’s fruit and vegetable intake in school settings. These programs have generally shown modest short-term positive effects limited to fruit and vegetable consumption at school. Prior research has also shown that the majority of children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake occurs during school lunch. This suggests that researchers and policymakers should work to develop strategies to impact children’s fruit and vegetable intake in the home setting. Low fruit and vegetable intake is a primary concern among low-income families due to limited access and affordability of fruits and vegetables. Moreover, Wisconsin has the 14th highest obesity rate in the nation. Moreover, in Eau Claire County, the obesity rate has increased significantly in the past 6 years with 30% of adults currently obese. This study is designed to increase Eau Claire County children’s consumption of fruits and vegetables at home by increasing access through free fruit and vegetable coupons provided to parents. We examined the rate at which families redeemed the free coupons and whether students whose families redeemed the coupons showed an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption at home compared to students whose families did not redeem the coupons.