Examining Rural Store Owners’ Perceptions of USDA’s Minimum Stocking Requirements

The purpose of this project is to examine rural store owners’ perceptions about the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) proposed rule that updates the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) vendor requirements and to understand the barriers and facilitators to implementation. The study will include a content analysis on the public comments on USDA’s proposed More

Measures of Retail Food Store Environments and Sales: Review and Implications for Healthy Eating Initiatives

This review describes available measures of retail food store environments, including data collection methods, characteristics of measures, the dimensions most commonly captured across methods, and their strengths and limitations. Articles were included if they were published between 1990 and 2015 in an English-language peer-reviewed journal and presented original research findings on the development and/or use More

Understanding the Feasibility of Implementing the Recommendations for Minimum Stocking Levels and Marketing Strategies for Small Retail Food Stores

The purposes of this project are to: 1) understand the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of the Minimum Stocking Levels and Marketing Strategies of Healthful Foods for Small Retail Food Stores recommendations developed in 2015 among stores most likely to face challenges (rural and urban, dollar and family-owned stores), and 2) obtain a baseline More

Effectiveness of Fresh to You, a Discount Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Market in Low-Income Neighborhoods, on Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Consumption, Rhode Island, 2010-2011

Increasing access to farmers’ markets is a recommended approach to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. However, there are challenges to increasing access in underserved and lower-income neighborhoods, including short growing seasons, lack of access to culturally appropriate or desired produce, and high cost of produce at farmers’ markets. The “Fresh to You” program, a partnership More

Analyzing the Associations between Price Promotions and Health Claims on the Nutrient Profile of Food Purchases

Despite substantial literature on how to improve the food environment for children, there has been little work examining how price promotions, nutrient-related claims, and their interactions might be associated with the nutrient profile of food purchases, particularly for lower-income and racial/ethnic minority populations. This study will address these gaps using 2008-2012 data for a demographically More

Testing the Effectiveness of a Double-Dollar Incentive Program to Increase Purchases of Fruits and Vegetables

Currently there is much interest in incentivizing the purchase of healthier food items among lower-income populations. The purpose of this project is to pilot test a double-dollar incentive program traditionally used at farmers’ markets to increase purchases of fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables in a large grocery store retail setting (Hannaford). Approximately 400 More