Start Date: November 2016

ID #: 74130

Principal Investigator: Brian Elbel, PhD, MPH

Co-Principal Investigator: Jessica Athens, PhD

Organization: New York University

Funding Round: Round 10

See more related research

Share


The 2014 Farm Bill Authorization included $100 million to promote the purchase of fresh produce among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants through matching financial incentives for every SNAP dollar spent on fresh produce. As part of this, the Fair Food Network (FFN) received over $5 million to expand its SNAP match program, Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB), from farmers’ markets to supermarkets. The aims of this study are to: 1) evaluate the impact of DUFB on the volume of fresh produce purchased by SNAP participants, and 2) assess the impact of DUFB on the volume of “unhealthy food” (i.e., sugar-sweetened beverages, salty snacks, and grain-based desserts) purchased by SNAP participants. The project will use transaction data from 2014-2016 from 62 supermarkets, including 32 DUFB-participating stores and 30 control stores, in Michigan, Kansas, and Missouri, to evaluate changes in the volume of fresh produce and other food categories purchased using SNAP and DUFB after DUFB implementation. A Difference-in-Difference approach will be used to study the effect of the DUFB program, controlling for secular trends and characteristics of stores and their neighborhoods.

Related Research

November 2019

Evaluating a USDA Program that Gives SNAP Participants Financial Incentives to Buy Fresh Produce in Supermarkets

Pricing incentives may reduce disparities in obesity among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants by increasing fruit and vegetable purchases. However, few studies have evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of those incentives in supermarkets, as opposed to farmers markets. In 2015 and 2016, as part of a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) pilot program, a More

September 2025

Food Insecurity-Related Stigma Among Adults in the United States: A Scoping Review

This review aimed to characterize individual- and structural-level stigma associated with government (ie, SNAP, WIC) and emergency food program (ie, food banks, pantries, cupboards, soup kitchens) utilization in the US. 5 databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, Sociological Abstracts) were searched in June 2024. The review included peer-reviewed articles (January 2004 – June 2024), More

August 2025

Resources to Improve Implementation of the Healthy Eating Research (HER) Nutrition Guidelines for the Charitable Food System

This guide contains training materials, resources, tips, and examples of practices to help food banks improve the implementation of Healthy Eating Research (HER) Nutrition Guidelines for the Charitable Food System. To create this guide, the research team interviewed people working in food banks across the country to learn how they approach ranking foods using the More