Social Marketing for a Farmer's Market in an Underserved Community: A Needs Assessment

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to assess local residents’ awareness of utilizing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase fresh produce at local farmers’ markets, and to determine internet use and media preferences of study participants prior to implementation of a social marketing campaign. A needs assessment was conducted to collect baseline data in an underserved neighbourhood in New Orleans (La, USA). The study was carried out August 2014-May 2015. The assessment revealed that 73% of the respondents were unaware that the SNAP benefits could be used to purchase food in farmers’ markets; 63% of low-income participants never attended a farmers’ market compared to 27% of mid/high-income. Over 50% of the low-income respondents have access to the internet at least once per day. The results show the potential of raising awareness among a wide range of members in the community. This needs assessment will serve as the foundation for a social marketing intervention, which will be disseminated city-wide.Significance for public healthThis brief report establishes the need for local farmers’ markets (FM) in New Orleans, Louisiana to distribute information to increase the awareness of the markets, especially among low-income individuals. A variety of the FMs in New Orleans offer discounts to increase access to fresh produce among underserved individuals. However, there is a lack of knowledge of these markets, the ability to utilize Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to purchase food, and of the discounts offered. Furthermore, this assessment demonstrates that low-income individuals have adequate access to the internet and a variety of social media channels. Based on these results, our research establishes that cost-effective and efficient, web-based marketing could be used as means help increase FM participation among low-income individuals. Increasing awareness of FMs and discounts offered to low-income individuals is one step in creating better access to affordable produce, which could lead to increased fruit and vegetable consumption and better health outcomes among at-risk populations.

Racial, Gender, and Age Dynamics in Michigan’s Urban and Rural Farmers Markets: Reducing Food Insecurity, and the Impacts of a Pandemic

“…Nevertheless, more than a third of the customers at people-of-color-operated farmers markets are people of color. This finding is noteworthy as earlier studies have found that low numbers of people of color visit and shop at farmers markets (Nuss et al, 2017; Singleton et al, 2020; Skizim et al, 2017).…”

“…The study found that 88% of the respondents shopped for fruits and vegetables at grocery stores and 84% obtained these items at Walmart ( Nuss et al, 2017 ). Skizim et al (2017) found that 63% of low-income New Orleans residents never visited a farmers market, while 27% of middle- and high-income residents never went to farmers market.…”

Identifying and assessing factors affecting farmers’ markets Electronic Benefit Transfer sales in Hawai‘i

“…The positive impact of both social media usage and informal marketing may suggest that social media, word-of-mouth and environmental print could be effective ways to promote EBT sales at farmers' markets. Other studies have found that environmental print is more effective than newspaper advertising for reaching low-income audiences with health messaging and that internet-based advertising and social media are increasingly viable methods for reaching low-income populations (47,48) . Future studies might assess whether this type of outreach is associated with a greater sense of community connectedness with the market; particularly given that in the current study the impact of socialmedia-based outreach appeared greater than the impact of price (double-bucks promotions) on sales.…”