Examining changes in farmers’ markets and in customers’ farmers’ market shopping frequency and fruit and vegetable purchase and consumption: evaluation data from the Partnerships to Improve Community Health Project, 2014–2017

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Partnerships to Improve Community Health Project focused on making improvements to farmers’ markets, including adding welcome signs and accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/Electronic Benefit Transfer as a payment option. To evaluate these efforts, we examined the associations between farmers’ market shopping frequency and fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption among farmers’ market customers before and after establishing improvements at three time points between 2015 and 2017. After Year 1, there was a significantly higher proportion of high FV purchasers in farmers’ markets with more amenities (57.3%) versus markets with fewer amenities (41.1%) (odds ratio = 1.92, 95% confidence interval = 1.14, 3.25). After Year 2, there was a greater proportion of customers that were high FV purchasers in markets that accepted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/Electronic Benefit Transfer (SNAP/EBT) (64.9%) when compared to those surveyed in markets that did not accept SNAP/EBT (30.3%) (OR = 4.26, 95% CI = 1.77, 10.24). Customers’ produce consumption decreased from 4.99 servings/day in 2015 to 4.48 servings/day in 2016 and went back up to 4.86 servings/day in 2017 (p = 0.09). Body mass index (BMI) was inversely associated with frequency of shopping at farmers’ markets (p value = 0.01). Results indicate that adding SNAP/EBT to farmers’ markets may bolster customers’ FV purchases, and shopping at farmers’ markets with enhanced amenities more frequently may be associated with a lower BMI.