Farm to school programming spillovers and households' fruits and vegetables purchases

Abstract

The number of US school food authority's (SFA) implementing Farm to School Programming (FTSP) is growing. Little is known about potential spillover effects of school children's exposure to FTSP on household food purchases. We measure the relationship between school age children's exposure to FTSP and household-level Food-At-Home fruits and vegetables (FV) expenditures and expenditure shares. Combining Farm to School Census data on SFAs' FTSP participation with household-level scanner data, we estimate positive relationships between FV expenditures and different measures of children's exposure to FTSPs, especially for metro households. However, the magnitude of these relationships is likely too small to be meaningful.