The Short‐Run Impact of the Healthy Incentives Pilot Program on Fruit and Vegetable Intake

Abstract

In response to low consumption levels of fruits and vegetables by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service created the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP) to test the efficacy of providing a 30% incentive for purchases of targeted fruits and vegetables (TFVs). Four to six months after implementation, mean daily TFV intake for adult HIP participants was 0.22 cup‐equivalents higher (24% higher) than for control‐group SNAP participants. These impact estimates with a random‐assignment research design generally agree with previously published nonexperimental elasticity estimates, which imply that a pure price reduction of 30% would increase fruit and vegetable consumption by about 20%.