Impact of Healthy Food Subsidies on Diet Quality and Food Security

Summary

The British Columbia Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) provides lower-income households with coupons to purchase healthy foods at farmers' markets. This pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT) will examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of two higher subsidies for healthy food ($54/weeek or $81/week), compared to the usual FMNCP healthy food subsidy ($27/week), on the diet quality (primary outcome), food insecurity, and other health-related outcomes of 276 parent-child dyads with lower incomes. 276 parent-child dyads who are enrolled in the FMNCP will be randomly assigned to one of the three subsidy arms. Participants will receive 16 weeks of coupons that can be redeemed for up to 20 weeks. Outcomes will be assessed in one parent (18-64 years) and child (6-17 years) from each household pre-, mid- and post-intervention.

Conditions

• Food Insecurity

Interventions

OTHER

Healthy food subsidy: $27/household/week

Participants receive 16 weeks of coupons valued at $27/week to purchase healthy foods at BC farmers' markets. Eligible foods include vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, vegetable and fruit plants, honey and herbs.

OTHER

Healthy food subsidy: $54/household/week

Participants receive 16 weeks of coupons valued at $54/week to purchase healthy foods at BC farmers' markets. Eligible foods include vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, vegetable and fruit plants, honey and herbs.

OTHER

Healthy food subsidy: $81/household/week

Participants receive 16 weeks of coupons valued at $81/week to purchase healthy foods at BC farmers' markets. Eligible foods include vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, vegetable and fruit plants, honey and herbs.

OTHER

Nutrition skill-building

Participants are eligible, but not required, to attend optional nutrition skill-building activities (e.g. cooking and gardening classes).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• British Columbia Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program

  collaborator OTHER

• BC Association of Farmers' Markets

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Calgary

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Dana Lee Olstad, PhD, RD · University of Calgary

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

64 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-06-07

Primary Completion

2025-12-16

Completion

2025-12-16

Countries

• Canada