Impact of the Revised Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Food Package Policy on Fruit and Vegetable Prices

Abstract

Obesity is generally inversely related to income among women in the United States. Less access to healthy foods is one way lower income can influence dietary behaviors and body weight. Federal food assistance programs, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), are an important source of healthy food for low-income populations. In 2009, as part of a nationwide policy revision, WIC added a fruit and vegetable (F/V) voucher to WIC food packages. This quasi-experimental study determined whether F/V prices at stores authorized to accept WIC (ie, WIC vendors) decreased after the policy revision in seven Illinois counties. It also examined cross-sectional F/V price variations by store type and neighborhood characteristics. Two pre-policy observations were conducted in 2008 and 2009; one post-policy observation was conducted in 2010. Small pre- to post-policy reductions in some F/V prices were found, particularly for canned fruit and frozen vegetables at small stores. Compared with chain supermarkets, mass merchandise stores had lower prices for fresh F/V and frozen F/V and small stores and non-chain supermarkets had higher canned and frozen F/V prices, but lower fresh F/V prices. Limited price differences were found across neighborhoods, although canned vegetables were more expensive in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of either Hispanics or blacks and fresh F/V prices were lower in neighborhoods with more Hispanics. Results suggest the WIC policy revision contributed to modest reductions in F/V prices. WIC participants’ purchasing power can differ depending on the type and neighborhood of the WIC vendor used.

Food labelling, food retail availability and food pricing – moving from research to action?

“…These stores are important points of purchase in many lower-income and racial/ethnic minority neighbourhoods due to the lack of supermarkets. This finding supports other prior published studies showing small improvements in healthier food availability (and pricing) following the WIC food package revision (26)(27)(28)(29) . O'Malley et al examined the impact of the WIC food package revision using a new audit instrument, the WIC Availability Index (WIC-AI), and argue that their instrument is not only useful to monitor WIC adoption but also to measure the healthfulness of retail food environments in general.…”

Do Targeted Vouchers Instill Habits? Evidence From Women, Infants, and Children

“…These studies compare characteristics of the supply side (availability and prices) before and after the package change or the behavior of WIC participants (purchases and consumption) before and after the package change. The results from these studies consistently show that the availability of healthier foods included in the WIC package increased in stores (e.g., Andreyeva et al 2012;Ayala et al 2012) with some evidence that the prices of these foods did not rise or decreased (e.g., Zenk et al 2014). Further, these studies consistently find that the WIC package revision increased purchases and consumption of the foods included in the new package, resulting in an overall improvement in diet (e.g., Whaley et al 2012).…”

Homeostatic theory of obesity

“…The investigators concluded that the federal policy changes to WIC had the intended effect of increasing consumption of the prescribed food items. In support of this finding, Zenk et al (2014) used a quasi-experimental design to determine whether F/V prices at WIC vendor stores decreased after the policy revision in seven Illinois counties. Results suggested that the WIC policy revision contributed to reductions in F/V prices.…”