Farmers’ Market Incentives for Low-Income Families: Who Uses, How Much, and Why

Differences in Farmers’ Market Patronage among Participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

“…Because farmers' markets are relatively inexpensive to establish and have low overhead costs as compared to retail establishments, they provide an ideal structure to serve the nutrition needs of low-income communities with low access to fresh fruits and vegetables. However, considerable barriers hamper farmers' market patronage among low-income consumers, including accessibility [27]; transportation constraints [28][29][30][31]; perception of high prices or prices that do not compete with those of supermarkets [28,29,32,33]; inconvenient opening hours or location [28,29,31,32]; and limited product selection when compared to grocery stores [28,29].…”

“…Various healthy food incentive programs aim to further improve access. Such programs include Market Match in California [32], Double Up Food Bucks [41,42], Food on the Move in Rhode Island [43], and the Produce Plus Program in D.C. [44]. These programs provide incentives such as coupons, vouchers, and dollar-for-dollar matching of food assistance benefits to be used at participating farmers' markets or other produce retail venues.…”

“…Some of these programs also offer nutrition education classes, educational materials, and other activities [45][46][47]. Many of these incentive programs have succeeded in bringing new, low-income consumers to farmers' markets who otherwise would have not shopped there [32,41,48]. One study found that women were more willing to shop at farmers' markets if they were close to home, but they became more willing to travel a longer distance to a farmers' market that offered greater savings when compared to a supermarket [30].…”