Focus Area: Pricing & Economics

Identifying and Evaluating Food Environment Changes Improving Access to Affordable Healthy Foods in Low-Income Communities

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The goal of this research is to evaluate the Fresh to You (FTY) program, which aims to increase year-round access to affordable, high-quality, fresh fruits and vegetables for low-income families through implementation of year-round discount fruit and vegetable markets in community organizations. Specifically, this work will consist of (a) conducting process evaluations of FTY in More

Evaluating Nutrition Policies and Practices in U.S. Secondary Schools

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This aim of this work is to evaluate disparities in school-level nutrition policies and practices across the U.S. More specifically, the objective of this research is to (a) determine the prevalence of school-level nutrition policies and practices in a large sample of schools across multiple states stratified by school-level socioeconomic status, geographic location, and racial/ethnic More

Examining Higher and Lower Income Household Food Purchasing Behavior and Whether It May Be Responsible for Childhood Obesity

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This project will examine the extent to which household food purchasing behavior differs between higher- and lower-income households and whether these differences may be partly responsible for socioeconomic differences in childhood obesity. In addition, investigators will use econometric models of household food purchases to simulate the extent to which pricing policies, such as taxes on More

Examining the Financial Impact of a la Carte Foods in Kansas Public Schools

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This project will characterize demographic and financial differences in the dependence on a la carte food sales among school food service programs. Specifically, the aims of this research are to: (a) classify and describe school districts according to their level of a la carte dependence, (b) explore key financial and demographic characteristics that distinguish low, More

Creating Healthy Food and Eating Environments: Policy and Environmental Approaches

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Individual behavior to make healthy choices can occur only in a supportive environment with accessible and affordable healthy food choices. This article presents an overview of food environments and strategies for creating healthy eating environments. An ecological framework is presented for conceptualizing the many food environments and conditions that influence food choices, followed by a More

Measuring, Analyzing and Examining Food Spending and Nutritional Quality in Family Day Care Participants in the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program

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The aim of this project is to examine how food costs and reimbursement rates impact the dietary quality of foods that are served in family day care homes. Taking advantage of a unique policy-analysis opportunity to assess the effects of different subsidy levels for providers in adjacent urban regions, this project will compare nutritional quality More

Legal Analysis of Opportunities to Address Obesity and Protect Public Health

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The epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States has caused considerable challenges for public health agencies and advocates. This article explores the types of public actions and policies that could be enacted to decrease obesity and improve public health. It also discusses key legal principles and issues that can potentially impede state and local More