Association between nutrition assistance programs and household produce waste during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Fresh produce is the most wasted food, accounting for about 45% of household food waste in the United States. The literature is inconclusive about whether nutrition assistance programs aimed at increasing access to healthy food affect household food waste, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated the association between participation in nutrition assistance programs (food pantries and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) and changes in household produce waste since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that more fresh produce was distributed to food pantries during the pandemic, we examined whether the perceived quality of fresh produce at food pantries may influence household food waste behavior. We conducted an online survey for adults residing in the Capital Region of New York state from October to December 2021. Among 504 respondents, 27% reported throwing away less produce than usual since the COVID-19 pandemic began, 22% used food pantries, and about half perceived the quality of fresh produce at those pantries as poor. Approximately one-third of respondents were SNAP participants, including the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT). We found that food pantry users who rated produce quality as acceptable had 2.4 times the odds of wasting less produce since the COVID-19 pandemic began compared to non-users of food pantries. Similarly, SNAP/P-EBT users were more likely to report less household produce waste compared to non-SNAP/P-EBT users. Our findings highlight that participation in food assistance programs may help reduce household food waste and underscore the importance of maintaining fresh produce quality at a level clients perceive as acceptable. We suggest greater collaboration among public health nutrition, food waste research, and food systems stakeholders to work toward the common goals of efficiently distributing healthy food, reducing food waste, and eliminating hunger.