The Healthy Incentives Pilot and Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Interim Results

In response to low consumption of fruits and vegetables by SNAP recipients, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service created the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP) to test the efficacy of providing a 30% incentive for purchases of fruits and vegetables. Published elasticity estimates imply that a pure price reduction of 30% would increase fruit and vegetable consumption by about 20%, i.e., about a fifth of a cup per day. This paper considers the applicability of predictions based on a pure price reduction. It then reports interim results of a random assignment evaluation of HIP which find an increase of about a fifth of a cup per day.