California Promotes Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

In an effort to help low-income people obtain more fresh fruits and vegetables, California has enacted law, AB 2384 that establishes a multi-year pilot project that will give food stamp recipients a rebate for purchasing fresh produce. It will also help small independent grocers buy and store fresh produce.

Poor neighborhoods have fewer grocery stores than wealthier areas, and consequently residents have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The dearth of fresh produce translates into poorer diets and increased risk for chronic conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Obesity costs the Golden State some $20 billion a year. Unless policymakers take proactive measures, “the current health-care system could be overwhelmed,” says Assemblyman Mark Leno, who sponsored the bill. 

Making Produce Available
The first part of the Healthy Purchase Pilot Program seeks to increase the amount of fresh produce carried by the small stores—in Spanish, “bodegas”—that perch on the corners of low-income neighborhoods. Stocked with candy, snacks and canned goods, but very little fresh produce, these stores are patronized by area residents, who often lack a convenient mode of transportation to get to the bigger, chain grocery stores.

With assistance from the state departments of food and agriculture, the Department of Health will award grants and technical assistance to small grocers to help them install refrigeration for fresh fruits and vegetables and pay for the resulting increased energy costs. The grants also will help corner grocers devise efforts, such as in-store promotions and community events, to educate the public about healthy eating. Finally, state agencies will offer education to independent grocers on finding and purchasing produce from local outlets.

Making Produce Affordable
The second piece of the project deals with the affordability of fresh produce. “The major obstacle to a person purchasing fresh produce is a lack of money, pure and simple,” says George Manalo-LeClair, director of legislation and policy for the California Food Policy Advocates. He cited a recent study by the Department of Health that showed purchases of produce increased when shoppers were offered discounts.

Each year, federal food stamp benefits total $2.3 billion in the state of California, with Los Angeles accounting for one-tenth of nationwide food stamp usage. In an effort to encourage food stamp recipients to use more of that money to buy fresh produce, the state will offer recipients a rebate on every purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The program will work like this: a food-stamp recipient who buys fresh tomatoes and pays with his or her electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card will have a rebate credited to the EBT card for future food purchases. Those future goods need not be fresh fruit or vegetables; they need only be approved for purchase with food “stamps.” The universal product code (UPC) associated with the produce would denote that the items being purchased fit the guidelines for fresh produce under the pilot.

The Health Department will try different rebate rates to gauge how to best increase produce purchases. The program will be established in seven counties across the state, in a mix of urban and rural settings that are deemed especially lacking in access to fresh food. A strong evaluation tool is included in both programs. Manalo-LeClair stressed the need for good data that unequivocally shows an increase in produce purchased per person for the program to continue and possibly become a national model.

Implementation of the Healthy Purchase Pilot Program is contingent on the appropriation of state and/or federal funds. Organized opposition to the measure was small; some advocates were leery that the changes could portend restrictions on what food stamp recipients may or may not buy, but the incentive-based approach may have allayed some of those fears.

The legislation has generated interest from other states and the federal government, Manalo-LeClair says. The U.S. Congress is considering legislation (Section 510 of HB 6193) that would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allocate $50 million over five years to test financial incentives for the purchase of fresh produce.

“This is not a silver bullet, it’s only a piece of the puzzle,” Leno notes. But he hopes that the program will encourage policymakers and the public to think differently about how to improve health status while reducing health-care costs.