Higher pricing of fresh produce is more likely in SNAP-Ed eligible neighborhoods when adjacent non-program eligible neighborhoods are mixed income

Mirna Ponce Jewell; Elaine S Lai; Jack Thompson; Michael Fox; Tony Kuo

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.01.021

Higher pricing of fresh produce is more likely in SNAP-Ed eligible neighborhoods when adjacent non-program eligible neighborhoods are mixed income

Prev Med Rep. 2019 Feb 8:14:100817. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.01.021. eCollection 2019 Jun.

Authors

Mirna Ponce Jewell¹, Elaine S Lai¹, Jack Thompson¹, Michael Fox¹, Tony Kuo^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90010, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
³ Department of Family Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.
⁴ Population Health Program, UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.

Abstract

This analysis describes the socioeconomic attributes of neighborhoods adjacent to low-income neighborhoods with ≥50% of households that are Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) eligible. It compares the pricing, availability, and quality of fresh produce between these neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health utilized 2013-2014 community-level data from the Communities of Excellence in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Prevention (CX3) Project to examine the geographic patterns of fresh produce purchases and accessibility in SNAP-Ed eligible census tracts. Community indicators collected by CX3 included information on pricing, availability, and quality of fruits and vegetables from grocery stores (n = 108) in these eligible neighborhoods (n = 21). Correlation statistics were generated to explore the effects of adjacent neighborhoods' socioeconomic status on fruit and vegetable pricing, availability, and quality in the selected neighborhoods ("CX3 neighborhoods"). Poverty data were obtained from the United States Census' American Community Survey. Residents of CX3 neighborhoods that were surrounded by mixed income neighborhoods paid 43% more for fresh produce than CX3 neighborhoods surrounded by other similarly low-income neighborhoods (median produce price, $1.50 versus $1.05). Study results suggest that while quality of produce remains an issue, it is the higher pricing of fresh produce in CX3 neighborhoods - i.e., in the presence of other surrounding mixed income neighborhoods (those with relatively higher income) - that appeared to potentiate food access barriers. Future SNAP-Ed efforts should take this pricing pattern under consideration when designing, planning, and/or implementing nutrition-related programs in these neighborhoods.

Keywords: CX3, Communities of Excellence in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Prevention; DPH, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health; Food access; Food pricing; Low-income communities; SES, socioeconomic status; SNAP-Ed, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education.