In Underserved Boston Neighborhoods: Outline

Robyn Lightner ENST-70 Healthy Food Accessibility and the Affordability of Farmers’ Markets in Underserved Boston Neighborhoods: Outline The purpose of my anecdotal and ongoing observational research is aimed at examining the perception that direct- retail produce is prohibitively more expensive than conventional grocery in order to accurately inform communities about the affordability of healthy food and validate the efforts of community groups, policy advocates, and farmers so collective energies and funds are more efficiently directed.

Part One: Discussion of National and Local (Boston) Food Access 1) Low-income Neighborhoods have a higher rate of health problems a) National: Correlation between food insecurity and serious health problems (Neault et al., 2005). b) Boston: Lower Income Boston residents reported higher rates of asthma, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and high blood pressure. 2) Low-income neighborhoods have reduced access to healthy food a) Define food access, “food deserts”, and problems with nomenclature b) Reduced availability and variety i) National: Lack of competition, limited transportation, prevalence of small convenience stores ii) Boston: “On average, 16% of items on USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan were not available in participating Boston stores” (Thayer et al., 2008). c) Affordability/ Higher prices i) National: Food prices are higher in low-income urban areas due to less open land, high security costs, poor labor skills, more ethnic/convenience stores, etc. (Whitacre, 2008). ii) Boston: Roxbury, North, and South Dorchester accounted for nearly half of the food stamp cases in Boston. (“Health of Boston”, 2008); In Boston, the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan was 39% higher than the USDA’s predicted average monthly cost (Thayer et al., 2008). 3) Expansion of Direct Retail a) Benefits include freshness, taste, support local business, and community building. b) National: The 2010 National Farmers Market Directory lists 6,132 operational farmers markets, representing 16 percent growth over 2009. (USDA, 2010) c) Boston: More farmers markets per capita than any other city in the U.S. (Denison, 2010); In 2010 Boston had 215 Farmers’ markets, a 113% increase since 2004. (EOEEA, 2010) 4) Expansion of Federal Nutrition Assistance and Incentives to Farmers’ Markets a) Overview of SNAP, WIC, and FMNP; under these programs, 3 million WIC participants and seniors are purchasing produce at farmers markets using FMNP coupons. (Schumacher et al., 2009) b) National: To make produce at farmers’ markets more affordable, several programs offer matching or bonus funds for EBT, FMNP, and SFMNP dollars used at farmers markets. (Schumacher et al., 2009)

1 c) Boston: “Boston Bounty Bucks” program provides farmers’ markets with wireless terminals that accept SNAP, offers training for participating markets, doubles value of SNAP credit up to $20 (Kim, 2010) 5) Impact of increasing accessibility of direct retail in low-income neighborhoods a) National: Incentives are effective in increasing healthy food consumption (Gov. Accountability, 2008); 300% increase in SNAP/WIC use with incentive programs (Schumacher et al., 2009). b) Boston: Since 2008, number of farmers’ markets accepting SNAP benefits increased from 0 to 14. (Schumacher et al., 2009); increased produce consumption, increased vendor revenue (Kim, 2010) 6) Relative Cost of Direct Retail a) There exists a widespread popular perception that farmers’ market produce is more expensive than conventional supermarkets (Jones et al., 2009; Kim, 2010). 7) Few problematic studies have attempted to compare prices a) Analysis of Sommer et al., Pirogg and McCann, and Jones et al. 8) Goal of research a) Through the creation of an agreed-upon, replicable method of price analysis, the efforts to improve food access in underserved neighborhoods across the nation will be made more visible. By developing and conducting a pilot study in two Boston neighborhoods that have become leaders in the community-guided healthy food access movement, the observational phase of this report aims to contribute to this process. Part Two: Observational Study 1) Purpose: The purpose of this study is to either promote further funding to subsidize the cost of produce at farmers' markets or figure out how to change the way we present information to the public in order to emphasize the benefits of local produce over the cost. In the end, we hope to be able to present our findings to the newly formed Boston Food Policy Council along with other Food Access Boards and The Kellogg Foundations in order to clarify a lot of the confusion, lack of information, and misinformation about the differences in price between local farmers' market produce and non-local supermarket produce 2) Objectives a) Collect and record price/ pound of ten staple produce items across all ten farmers’ markets and 7 conventional mid-to-large food markets in the predominantly low-income neighborhoods of Dorchester and Roxbury over the course of 8 fourteen-day periods from July to October. b) Compare average price/ pound of same produce type between farmers’ markets and conventional markets for all ten types using a series tests using difference in paired means. c) Conduct further statistical analysis of comparative data using collapsed samples means. d) Supplemental: Collect and compare qualitative data between samples. 3) Methods- Design a) Selection of area b) Neighborhood demographics c) Selection of Farmers’ Markets d) Selection of Supermarkets e) Selection of Produce f) Selection of time period 4) Data Collection a) Price Collection b) Vendor Research 5) Analysis 6) Conclusions & Implications 7) Appendix (graphs, collection forms, demographics, purchase habits, etc.) 2 Added Sources Denison, D.C. “Rich Produce at City’s Farmers’ Markets”. The Boston Globe. 19 October 2010. . Government Accountability Office. Food Stamp Program: Options for Delivering Financial Incentives to Participants for Purchasing Targeted Foods (GAO-08-415). July 2008.

“Health of Boston 2010”. Boston Public Health Commission Research Office. 2010.

Kim, Gina. “Boston Bounty Bucks: Increasing Access to and Affordability of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for SNAP Participants”. The Food Project. Boston, MA. February 2010.

“Patrick-Murray Administration Announces Grant to Help Boston Farmers' Market Expand Services for Low Income Customers”. Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. 22 July 2010. October 2010. < http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eoeeapressrelease&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Eoeea&b=press release&f=100722_pr_agr_grants&csid=Eoeea>.

Schumacher, A., Winch, R., and Park, A. “Fresh, Local, Affordable: Nutrition Incentives at Farmers’ Markets 2009 Update”. Wholesome Wave. November 2009. October 2010.

Thayer, J., Murphy, C., Cook, J., Ettinger de Cuba, S., DaCosta, R., Chilton, M. “Coming Up Short: High Food Costs Outstrip Food Stamp Benefits”. Boston Medical Center & The Philadelphia GROW Project at Drexel University. September 2008.

“USDA National Farmers Market Directory”. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. 4 August 2010.