Fruit and Vegetable Vouchers in Pregnancy: Preliminary Impact on Diet & Food Security

ABSTRACT

Pregnancy is a critical time period for supporting food security and maternal nutrition because of long-term potential impacts on the developing fetus. We conducted a pre-/post-analysis of pregnant WIC participants (n = 592) in San Francisco receiving $40/month of fruit and vegetable vouchers in addition to the standard WIC package. We compared pre-/post- changes to a comparison group of non-pregnant WIC participants (n = 108) receiving only the standard WIC package. We observed significant improvements in food security and mean daily frequency of total vegetables, combined fruits and vegetables, salad and non-fried potatoes (p < .05 for all comparisons).

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• fruit and vegetable vouchers
• pregnant women
• dietary intake

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals at the City and County of San Francisco Department of Public Health for ongoing support and assistance throughout the project: Priti Rane, Director of Nutrition Services and WIC Director; Magdalene Louie, WIC program Coordinator; and Paula Jones, Director of Food Security.

Authorship

H.K.S. was responsible for study design. S.M. and M.A. participated in data collection. R.A.R conducted all data analysis. Each of the authors participated in data interpretation, drafting, and approval of the final manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

HKS founded EatSF. HKS, MA and SM are involved with EatSF’s ongoing operations.

Ethical Standards Disclosure

This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki. All procedures were approved by the University of California San Francisco’s Committee on Human Research. The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Division of the California Department of Public Health exempted the study from additional approval by their Institutional Review Board.

Additional information

Funding

The voucher program was funded through the Population Health Division, Department of Public Health, City and County of San Francisco; it was implemented in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health WIC Program, and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Division, California Department of Public Health. This research was supported by the University of California, San Francisco, California Preterm Birth Initiative, funded by Marc and Lynne Benioff. This work was also supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration through the Quality, Safety, and Comparative Effectiveness Research Training–Primary Care Program (R.A.R, grant no. T32HP30037). These funders had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article;Health Resources and Services Administration [T32HP30037].