SNAP (Food Stamp) soft drinks....

[Martin Fisher]

Interesting...

"Leung points to programs like the Healthy Incentives Pilot, a small experiment in Massachusetts that gave SNAP participants 30 cents for every dollar they spent on fruits and vegetables. The incentive helped increase fruit and vegetable consumption by 25 percent. Leung also recommends prohibiting the use of SNAP benefits for soda. That’s a controversial measure—it could feel paternalistic, among other things—but one study she performed found that most SNAP participants would themselves rather be in a program that combined bonuses for buying healthy food and the elimination of soda from the program."

 

The Messy Relationship Between Food Stamps and Health, Several studies show beneficiaries of the program are more likely to be obese. But the answer is not to cut benefits, some academics say.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/05/the-messy-relationship-between-food-stamps-and-health/527820/

[Lisa Shock]

It's difficult to untangle cause and effect here. On the one hand, low income people are more likely to live in situations where they cannot cook, like hotels or overcrowded efficiency apartments. They can't just brew some coffee, so a caffeinated soft drink looks very appealing in the morning. They can't cook cheaper healthy foods, like, say, a three bean chili, the best they can do is buy it in a can. Incentives to buy more fruit and vegetables, especially those which can be eaten without cooking, are great. Incentives to get the poor to cook more often penalize those who are the poorest.

[gfweb]

https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/fresh-food/dollar-general-replaces-illinois-store-produce-focused-dg-market?LID=35857737

 

Looks like Dollar General is getting more like a traditional market with veg and meat etc.  Good thing for all concerned

[Margaret Pilgrim]

On 5/28/2017 at 1:20 PM, Lisa Shock said:

... Incentives to buy more fruit and vegetables, especially those which can be eaten without cooking...

 

In our and I'm sure other areas, the problem is not incentivizing but making simple fresh produce available at the often meager food shops in the neighborhood.   Produce is expensive to source and sell.   Often a "produce" section, if there is one at all, will have only a few old bananas and apples, potatoes and onions.