Public Health Nutrition Editorial Highlight: ‘Perceptions of nutrition education classes offered in conjunction with a community supported agriculture intervention among low-income families’.

Most individuals, and those of low-income in particular, living in the U.S. do not consume enough fruits and vegetables, which places them at greater risk of chronic diseases and premature death. Causes of fruit and vegetable underconsumption are multifaceted and are partially attributed to disparities in access, nutrition knowledge, and cooking skills.

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) models are characterized by an economic partnership between farmers and consumers, in which a consumer purchases a “share” of a farm’s crop prior to the growing season and receives portions of the produce grown. CSA participation is associated with higher fruit and vegetable intake, but members tend to be higher-income and more highly-educated. Cost subsidized CSAs, paired with tailored education, may offer a unique approach to addressing limited access to healthy foods for low-income communities.

Farm Fresh Foods for Healthy Kids (F3HK) was a randomized intervention trial in which low-income families participated in a subsidized or “cost-offset” community-supported agriculture (CO-CSA) program; CSA-relevant nutrition education sessions were offered throughout the season. The trial partnered with twelve farms across four states – New York, Vermont, Washington, and North Carolina. CO-CSA programs have been offered to low-income populations in the past, and tailored nutrition education has been suggested as a strategy to reduce non-economic barriers to enrolment. However, the current literature still lacks dedicated exploration into the experiences of participants enrolled in CSA-paired nutrition education and the potential benefits.

To address this gap, we invited participants to take part in focus group discussions to share their experiences with the CO-CSA and nutrition education classes following the completion of a full season of the intervention. Focus groups were audio recorded and analysed by a priori and emergent themes.

Our findings indicated that low-income families benefited from CSA-paired nutrition education. Specifically, they appreciated recipe ideas featuring CSA produce and the opportunity to build cooking and food preservation skills; perceived improvements in their nutrition knowledge and home cooking behaviours; and discussed the sessions as enhancing their overall CSA experience. Additionally, participants felt a sense of community with other attendees, the instructors, and children through open discussions, cooking together, and sharing meals.

Barriers to class attendance included personal and caretaker obligations, such as work, school, or child activity conflicts with class times. Participants made suggestions for improving the classes, such as offering multiple classes per week, lengthening the class time to accommodate more socialization, enhancing use of the current week’s CSA produce in class activities, and providing childcare and/or more strategies to engage children.

CO-CSAs paired with nutrition education may improve food access as well as health and cooking literacy. We offer considerations for improving fruit and vegetable consumption and health behaviours for low-income families. However, it is important to note the limited generalizability of our findings. Individuals who did not attend focus groups may have faced unique challenges to class attendance. Future food access interventions would benefit from close coordination with dynamic local growing cycles for maximal integration of unfamiliar CSA produce into lessons, coordinating classes with CSA pick-ups, and offering childcare.

Access the full article here ‘Perceptions of nutrition education classes offered in conjunction with a community supported agriculture intervention among low-income families’ by Isabel Lu, Karla L Hanson, Stephanie B Jilcott Pitts, Jane Kolodinsky, Alice S Ammerman, Marilyn Sitaker, Weiwei Wang, Leah C Volpe, Emily H. Belarmino, Jennifer Garner, Liana Gonsalves, Rebecca A Seguin.

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