Abstract
Though fruit and vegetable consumption is essential for disease prevention and health maintenance, intake among children fails to meet dietary recommendations. Limited access to and the affordability of fresh produce, particularly among low-income youth, are barriers to adequate intake. To address these challenges, researchers and pediatricians in Flint, Michigan, expanded a successful fruit and vegetable prescription program that provides one $15 prescription for fresh fruits and vegetables to every child at every office visit. Vendors include the downtown farmers’ market and a local mobile market. This study describes baseline characteristics, dietary patterns, food access, and food security among 261 caregiver–child dyads enrolled August 2018–March 2019. The child-reported mean daily intake of vegetables (0.72 cups ± 0.77), dairy products (1.33 cups ± 1.22), and whole grains (0.51 ounces ± 0.49) were well below recommendations. Furthermore, 53% of children and 49% of caregivers who completed the food security module indicated low or very low food security. However, there were no statistically significant differences in the child consumption of fruits and vegetables between households that reported high versus low food security (p > 0.05). Results validate and raise deep concerns about poor dietary patterns and food insecurity issues facing Flint children, many of whom continue to battle with an ongoing drinking water crisis. Additional poverty-mitigating efforts, such as fruit and vegetable prescription programs, are necessary to address these gaps.
Highlights
Though fruit and vegetable consumption is essential for proper growth and development [1,2,3,4], as well as for the prevention of chronic disease [5,6,7,8,9], intake among children fails to meet dietary recommendations [10,11,12,13]
60% of children who reside in Flint, Michigan, live below the poverty line [40], and the community struggles with a limited number of full-service grocery stores operating within the city [41]
The majority failed to reach dietary recommendations, with less than 10% of the entire sample meeting daily recommendations for vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and fiber. This finding, which is consistent with previous literature focused on dietary patterns of children and adolescents living in low-income urban communities [10,47,48], validates and continues to raise deep concerns about poor dietary patterns among children in Flint, many of whom continue to battle an ongoing drinking water crisis that is worsened by hunger and poor nutrition [38,49,50]
Summary
Though fruit and vegetable consumption is essential for proper growth and development [1,2,3,4], as well as for the prevention of chronic disease [5,6,7,8,9], intake among children fails to meet dietary recommendations [10,11,12,13]. While small improvements in total fruit intake among children have been demonstrated in recent years, vegetable consumption remains very low among children of all socio-demographic groups. Limited access to and the affordability of fresh produce, among low-income youth, are important barriers to adequate consumption [15,16,17]. To address these challenges, researchers partnered with pediatricians in Flint, Michigan, USA, to expand a successful fruit and vegetable prescription program that provides one $15 prescription (voucher) for fresh fruits and vegetables to every child at each office visit.
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