Hunger Task Force Mobile Market Initiative: Increasing Fruit & Vegetable Consumption Among Vulnerable Consumers

This collaboration between TCR researchers and Milwaukee’s Hunger Task Force (HTF) investigates the impact of increasing affordable access
to healthy foods in food deserts. In 2020, HTF was awarded a GusNIP grant to incentivize SNAP-eligible households to purchase fruits and vegetables onboard two Mobile Markets and expand the reach of their Mobile Market geographically as well as through bilingual marketing efforts. This Tier 2 ACR/TCR research grant enables the team to collect research data to (1) provide an external evaluation of the HTF outcomes as they implement this program and (2) assess the impact of nutrition incentive interventions more broadly. This research will investigate how mobile retail operations, subsidized fruit and vegetable prices, and bilingual marketing efforts work to increase affordable food access, helping us to better understand the power of market mechanisms to increase access to healthy foods.