Impact of a grocer-led fruit and vegetable promoting intervention in a rural Minnesota ethnic community

Abstract

This thesis evaluates a four-part intervention program in four rural Minnesota ethnic grocery stores. Stearns County, Minnesota has hosted approximately 1,200 primary refugees from 2011 to 2020, with nearly 92% having sought refuge from Somalia. The project team worked with Somali grocery store owners in the city of St. Cloud located in Stearns County to better supply their stores with fresh fruit and vegetables (FV). The in-store intervention methods included (1) training produce handlers, (2) implementing in-store demonstrative and educational material for customer viewing, (3) providing funding for refrigerated cases, and (4) subsidizing fresh produce procurement. From a series of pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys, this analysis included a full sample of 173 responses and 42 unique households with paired baseline and endline survey observations. We analyze models using the full and paired samples, alongside models using subsamples of food insecure households and post-intervention responses. Across all empirical models, we find consistent results in the magnitude and probability increase of weekly fruit, greens, and other vegetable consumption in the post-intervention period or with increased Somali store patronage. With 73% of individuals in the post-intervention period reporting increased patronage at the Somali stores, indicating higher exposure to fresh produce, we assume shoppers experienced a greater incentive to frequent the grocery stores. Higher patronage in the post-intervention period is also associated with an increase in the probability of FV consumption through a 24-hour consumption recall, at a statistically significant level. However, the probability of FV consumption shares a negative relationship with unplanned FV purchases.