Sugar sweetened beverage restriction or fruit and vegetable purchase incentive in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Participant’s voice and choice behavior

ABSTRACT

This mixed methods study assessed the perceptions of food choices among SNAP participants and SNAP-eligible non-participants when exposed to two alternative SNAP policy options: restrictions on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and incentives for fruit and vegetable (FV) purchases. Twelve focus groups that included a randomized food choice experiment were conducted in seven counties in Georgia, involving 73 participants. Participants had a favorable view toward incentivizing FV; responses toward SSB restrictions were mixed. FV incentives were associated with greater spending on FV and lower spending on SSBs, and SSB restriction was associated with lower spending on SSBs.

KEYWORDS:

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
• fruits and vegetables
• sugar-sweetened beverages
• incentive
• restriction
• policy

Abbreviations

SNAP-Ed	=	Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education
EFNEP	=	Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program

Acknowledgements

County agents (Kayla Wall, Rebecca Stackhouse, Ida Jackson, Roxie Price, Rhea Bentley, Kathryn Holland, Rachel Stewart, and Keishon Thomas) who supervise the UGA SNAP-Ed or EFNEP programming in the state of Georgia, aided with data collection; Program Development Coordinators (Lisa Jordon, Denise Dixon Everson, Andrea Scarrow, and Kisha Faulk) connected the researchers to the county agents; UGA SNAP-Ed Program Coordinator, Edda Z. Cotto-Rivera, for her constant feedback, communication, and support or this study; Sophie John from the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia provided assistance with overall project management; and Dr Alison Berg reviewed the draft manuscript and provided helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Dr Rajbhandari-Thapa, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture under Grant 2017-67023-26234.