Incorporating local foods into low-income families' home-cooking practices: The critical role of sustained economic subsidies

Abstract

Alternative food practices, including farmers markets and CSAs, are often inaccessible to low-income families. Subsidized CSAs and fruit and vegetable prescription programs have the potential to decrease food insecurity, increase fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, and generate better health outcomes. However, several challenges can limit the success of such programs, including the logis¬tics of distribution and an inability to cook from scratch due to a lack of kitchen infrastructure, time, or skills. In this paper, we investigate two diet-related health programs conducted with commu¬nity partners in Madison, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon. We used photovoice to evaluate and enhance these programs, which supplied low-income participants with free or subsidized weekly shares of local food, addressed transportation bar¬riers associated with access, and offered recipes and cooking education. Drawing on social practice theory, we demonstrate how these programs altered food provisioning practices for low-income individuals and families by building their competence in the kitchen, fostering meaningful social relationships, and cultivating new meanings related to fresh, local food. The short-term gains were positive, and such community-based nutrition pro¬grams warrant continued support as part of a broader strategy to address poverty and food insecurity.

How Does the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program Work? A Theory of Change

“… Promote locally sourced FVs when grantees offer this option. Offer FV recipes, cooking classes and demonstrations, taste testing opportunities, and other nutrition education activities [ 18 , 21 , 46 , 99 , 100 , 101 ]. Distribute FV recipes and tips for preparation and storage (e.g., via websites and social media) at food retailers.…”

“…Offer FV recipes, cooking classes and demonstrations, taste testing opportunities, and other nutrition education activities [ 18 , 21 , 46 , 99 , 100 , 101 ].…”

Eating inequity: The injustice that brings us our food

“…In order for our food to be just, it has to be produced in a system that values the people who produce it and the people who eat it (Rodman-Alvarez & Colasanti, 2019). This system must value individual and community health over wealth (Gaddis et al, 2020). Just some of the changes that can be made are creating intentional policy to ensure just distribution of and access to healthy food; improving economic opportunity for food chain workers worldwide; instigating legislative reform around worker rights and wages; limiting the power of Big Food, agriculture, pharmaceutical, and chemical companies on markets, food prices, and policy; and restructuring subsidies to support midscale, sustainable, and diverse agriculture.…”