The University of Vermont is collaborating with Cornell University, NOFA-VT, and UVM Extension EFNEP on research to examine whether low-income participation in a subsidized Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program along with tailored nutrition education can improve the quality of diet for low-income children, who are at highest risk for obesity.
The Vermont team is now recruiting families with children ages 2-12 to participate in this three-year study spanning Addison, Rutland, and Windham counties.
This study comes as new research links childhood obesity with low-income status.
Jane Kolodinsky, co-principal investigator of the study and chairwoman of the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics and Center for Rural Studies at UVM, said in a news release that, according to the most recent census, Vermont's poverty rate has been increasing, “coinciding with a slight increase in childhood obesity rates."
She added that “despite the state's breakthroughs in the food system, many food-insecure Vermonters are not aware of alternate options, like CSAs, that can provide affordable and healthy foods.”
To qualify for the study, families must have participated in SNAP, 3SquaresVT, WIC or Head Start benefits in the past 12 months or fall below 185 percent of the federal poverty level and must not have participated in a CSA within the past five years.
A total of 60 families will be recruited across the three counties.
Starting in June, participating families will receive reduced-cost CSA shares at 50 percent of the regular cost for two years and tailored nutrition education. Families also can earn up to $615 in compensation for participating in research activities.
This multi-state “Cost-Offset CSA” study, administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), runs through 2018.