Study: Families on Food Assistance are Purchasing more Fruits and Vegetables

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Efforts to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables among women and young children receiving food assistance are paying off, according to a study by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. The study is published in Public Health Nutrition.

Revisions to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) were implemented in 2009 to offer foods that better reflect dietary recommendations for Americans.

Latinos comprise 41 percent of WIC recipients. 

Rudd Center researchers examined fruit and vegetable purchases made at a New England supermarket chain by households participating in WIC over a two-year period. Fruit and vegetable spending and volume purchased by these households were compared before and after the WIC revisions.

Purchases of fresh vegetables increased in volume by nearly 18%, and purchases of frozen vegetables increased by nearly 28%. The biggest improvements were for fresh fruit, with an increase of almost 29%, adding almost a kilogram of fresh fruits per household per month.

View the full study here.