Financial Incentives May Improve Diet Among Some Food Stamp Recipients: Study

Participants in the research received $0.50 per $1 spent on fruits and vegetables.

A woman buys produce with food stamps, in a file image. Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Some people on food stamps may buy healthier food if they’re incentivized, researchers reported in a new paper published Nov. 18.

Researchers studied the impact of the Rhode Island Eat Well, Be Well program, which launched in January 2024 and automatically provides a $0.50 credit per $1 spent in food stamps on fresh produce at Stop & Shop and Walmart.

The incentive was built into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which gives people who meet certain criteria, such as having an income below a certain level, money on electronic cards to spend on food.

The researchers compared 364 SNAP participants from Rhode Island to 361 participants from Connecticut to see if the Rhode Island program led to increases in fruit and vegetable consumption five to eight months after it launched.

When the incentive was introduced, people from both states consumed a mean of 2.1 cups of fruit and vegetables per 1,000 kilocalories. Following implementation of the incentive, there was a 0.12 cup per 1,000 kilocalorie increase among Rhode Island food stamp recipients, researchers said in the study, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Diving deeper into the data, researchers found that among people who consumed few fruits and vegetables, there was no measurable change.

“The headline finding is that Rhode Island’s statewide SNAP fruit and vegetable incentive program showed encouraging trends but no significant overall increase in intake during the first several months of implementation. At the same time, we saw something important in the sub-analyses: people who were already eating more fruits and vegetables before the program increased their intake further, moving closer to recommended levels,” Alison Tovar, an associate professor at the Brown University School of Public Health and one of the study’s authors, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“In contrast, households with lower baseline intake showed little or no change.”

About 42 million Americans receive food stamps through SNAP, which has a monthly income limit starting at $1,696 for a household size of one. The average amount of food stamps conveyed to households in fiscal year 2023 was $332 a month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program with states, said in May.

One national program previously found that incentives increased fruit and vegetable intake. Another found no measurable change.

Tovar and coauthors state that the nonsignificant change in Rhode Island signals a need to improve the incentive program and its implementation, including possibly adding more supermarket chains and working on making people aware of the incentive.

Tovar, who holds a doctorate in nutritional biochemistry and metabolism, said that researchers are still analyzing longer-term data and conducting interviews with participants and others in the community to figure out more about the patterns they identified.

“A ‘null’ overall effect doesn’t mean the program failed. It tells us that financial incentives alone are not enough, especially for people who are starting with very low fruit and vegetable intake,” she said. “Those households may need additional support, like practical guidance, reminders, and help integrating the program into their usual shopping routines.”