Christopher W. Logan

Rebates to Incentivize Healthy Nutrition Choices in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Price incentives, or rebates, have been proposed as one promising strategy for improving diet quality among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants. This paper explores the existing evidence on effectiveness of rebates in this program. In particular, this paper considers findings from a recent RCT of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program rebates, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Healthy Incentives Pilot, in the context of the broader literature on rebate strategies. The paper concludes that rebates have a moderate impact on food intake, at moderate cost relative to alternative interventions. There is further evidence that implicit promotional effects may contribute to impacts of rebate interventions, beyond the impacts of price effects alone. However, existing studies on complementary effects of explicit promotion have been limited by relatively small sample sizes and correspondingly low power to detect differences. This appears to be a promising area for future research.

A Summer Nutrition Benefit Pilot Program and Low-income Children’s Food Security

Moderate amounts of summer food assistance (

Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children: Early Experiences through June 2011 of the Proof-of-Concept Year

60 per school-aged child per month) reduce VLFS-C by one-third. BACKGROUND: Federal summer meals programs serve less than one-sixth of children that receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year. To address this gap in food assistance for school-aged children, the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (SEBTC) Demonstrations provided summer food assistance in the form of electronic benefits transfer cards to households with school-aged children certified for free or reduced-price meals during the school year. METHODS: Over 2011–2013, the SEBTC demonstrations were evaluated by using a random assignment design. Households were randomly assigned a monthly

Community Eligibility Provision Evaluation: Year 3 Addendum. Nutrition Assistance Program Report.

60-per-child benefit, a monthly

Community Eligibility Provision Evaluation. Nutrition Assistance Program Report.

30-per-child benefit, or no benefit, depending on the study year. Key outcomes included children’s food security and consumption of foods and food groups related to a healthful diet (diet quality). At baseline (in the spring) and again in the summer, the evaluation surveyed ∼52 000 households over the course of the 3 years of the impact study. RESULTS: SEBTC reduced the prevalence of very low food security among children by one-third. It also had positive impacts on 6 of the 8 child nutrition outcomes measured (amounts of fruits and vegetables; whole grains; dairy foods; and added sugars). CONCLUSIONS: SEBTC is a promising model to improve food security and the dietary quality of low-income school-aged children in the summer months.