Dietary Quality and Caloric Contribution of the Alternative Food Acquisitions of U.S. Low-income Households: Results from the National Food Acquisition and Purchasing Survey (Foodaps)

ABSTRACT

Low-income households may acquire foods from purchases, federal food assistance, and alternative food sources (AFS) to meet their food needs. The objectives of this study were to quantify and compare the contribution of AFS to total kilocalories and dietary quality of food acquisitions between AFS users and non-users among low-income households. Users obtained 22.3% of kilocalories from AFS and purchased fewer kilocalories compared to non-users [14,886 ± 1464.10 versus 19,915.00 ± 1036.41 kilocalories]. AFS users had lower 2015-Healthy Eating Index scores from purchased acquisitions than non-users, but there was no difference in dietary quality between AFS users and non-users after accounting for alternative acquisitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Food acquisition
• community food sources
• social networks
• household food production
• dietary quality

Disclosure Statement

None of the authors have any financial interest or will receive benefit from direct applications of this research.

Data availability statement

The dataset used for this study is of public domain, available from: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/foodaps-national-household-food-acquisition-and-purchase-survey/.

Authorship

• Mayra Crespo-Bellido, PhD, RDN worked to conceptualize and design the study and formulate research questions as part of her dissertation work. She completed data analysis, contributed to interpretation of results, wrote the first drafts of all sections, and undertook major revisions.

• Yumie Takata, PhD revised the data analysis and interpretation, and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content throughout its development.

• Jennifer Jackson, PhD, MS, RDN contributed to and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content, language, and formatting throughout the its development.

• Stephanie Grutzmacher, PhD substantially contributed to the study conception and design and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content, language, and formatting throughout the its development.

• Ellen Smit, PhD, RD substantially contributed to the study conception and design, guided and revised data analysis and interpretation, and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content throughout its development.

• All coauthors approved the version submitted for review.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.