Farmers' Market Use Patterns Among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Recipients With High Access to Farmers' Markets

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate farmers' market (FM) use patterns among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.

Design: Cross-sectional survey administered June to August, 2015.

Setting: Cleveland and East Cleveland, OH.

Participants: A total of 304 SNAP recipients with children. Participants lived within 1 mile of 1 of 17 FMs. Most were African American (82.6%) and female (88.1%), and had received SNAP for ≥5 years (65.8%).

Main outcome measures: Patterns of FM shopping, awareness of FM near home and of healthy food incentive program, use of SNAP to buy fruits and vegetables and to buy other foods at FMs, receipt of healthy food incentive program.

Analysis: Two-stage cluster analysis to identify segments with similar FM use patterns. Bivariate statistics including chi-square and ANOVA to evaluate main outcomes, with significance at P ≤ .05.

Results: A total of 42% reported FM use in the past year. Current FM shoppers (n = 129) were segmented into 4 clusters: single market, public market, multiple market, and high frequency. Clusters differed significantly in awareness of FM near home and the incentive program, use of SNAP to buy fruit and vegetables at FMs, and receipt of incentive.

Conclusions and implications: Findings highlight distinct types of FM use and had implications for tailoring outreach to maximize first time and repeat use of FMs among SNAP recipients.

Keywords: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; diet habits; farmers' market; fruit; health communication; vegetables.