Can financial incentives help families on SNAP buy and eat more fruits and vegetables? A new study in JAMA Network Open offers an early look at Rhode Island’s Eat Well, Be Well program, the nation’s first statewide fruit and vegetable incentive for SNAP participants. The results suggest promise but also reveal practical hurdles that limited impact during the program’s first months.
Eat Well, Be Well launched in January 2024 and gives SNAP recipients 50 cents back for every dollar spent on fresh fruits and vegetables, up to $25 per month. The credit loads automatically onto the EBT card and can be used at Walmart and Stop & Shop stores across Rhode Island.
Researchers followed 725 SNAP participants from Rhode Island and a comparison group in Connecticut before the program began and again five to seven months after launch. They found that Rhode Island participants ate slightly more fruits and vegetables over time, but the increases were modest and not significantly different from the control group.
Awareness and access played a major role. Only about one in three participants could correctly describe what the program offered, and only one in four reported using the incentive. Participants who already ate more fruits and vegetables before the program saw the biggest increases afterward, suggesting they may have been better prepared to take advantage of the reward.
“Early results and follow-ups show that while incentives are part of the solution, more needs to be done to ensure people are aware of the program and how to best use it to buy more fruits and vegetables,” said Alison Tovar, an associate professor at Brown University and the study’s senior author.
The research team noted that limiting the program to two large grocery chains left out many SNAP recipients who shop at neighborhood stores, local markets or retailers outside the program’s reach. Transportation challenges and persistent produce prices may have also influenced participation.
“That suggests the program design has potential, but that implementation, communication and clarity are critical if we want to see population-wide improvements,” Tovar said.
Nutrition incentive programs have shown small but meaningful increases in fruit and vegetable intake in other settings, especially when families participate for longer periods. As Eat Well, Be Well expands and awareness improves, researchers expect future evaluations may show stronger effects. The team is continuing interviews with SNAP participants, community partners and retailers to identify ways to make the program easier to use and more accessible statewide.
This study was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Food Policy Program.