2014 Conference

Data suggest the Corn Belt and Southeastern United States have constantly showed low F & V consumption despite numerous efforts to promote and educate healthier diet. One of the policy solutions to increase F & V consumption is to implement government food subsidies such as SNAP and WIC for the low- and no- income families. However, policy makers have long argued the connection between these food assistant programs and households’ healthy food choice. In this study, we hypothesized that SNAP and WIC programs created more F & V intake. We conducted a household food choice survey in the northern Corn Belt region and applied ordered probit model to sample households with different characteristics, healthy attitude and life style, and diet habits. Our regression results suggested SNAP and WIC had significant and positive impacts on F & V consumption for households, although the real impacts varied by family characteristics, dietary habit, living environment, and household members’ willingness to live healthy. After controlling the difference in access to SNAP and WIC, we also found exercise habits, family support, and the willingness to make healthier choice had more importance role in F &V intakes than demographic background, socio-economic variables, and living environment variables. In addition, we found nutrition knowledge created opposite effects on F & V consumption for different households.