Low-income Americans spend
considerably less on fruits and vegetables than better-off Americans.
Even when their cash flows improve a bit, poorer consumers are apt
to spend their food dollars on something other than produce.
Those are among the findings in a new U.S. Department of Agriculture
study, “Low-Income Households’ Expenditures on Fruits
and Vegetables.”
On average, low-income households (defined as those with incomes below
130% of the poverty line, which for a family of four in 2000, was
$17,600) spent $3.59 per capita per week on fruits and vegetables
in 2000, while higher-income households (all other households) spent
$5.02. The study’s statistics were derived from the bureau of
Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey, which compared
consumer behavior in 1991 to that in 2000.
When low-income households saw minor increases in their incomes, the
extra money did not go to fruit and vegetable purchases, the study
found.
By contrast, similar percentage increases in higher-income households
did translate into more produce buys. The reason for that discrepancy,
researchers said, was that people in low-income households often consider
meats, cereal, and bakery products to be more essential, and so will
buy those instead.
The news is not new to some. The Produce for Better Health Foundation,
Wilmington, Del., has been working with government agencies and private
companies for years on ways to get low-income people to eat more produce.
One hurdle, said Elizabeth Pivonka, the foundation’s president,
is the misperception that freshfruits and vegetables are too expensive.
From a “nutirition point of view, fruits and vegetables in any
form are cheaper that other foods,” Pivonka said. “Part
of the problem is that when low-income people eat out, they’re
more likely to buy fast food because it’s cheaper that fine
dining, and of course fast food, until recently, didn’t have
many fruit and vegetable option’s available.”
PBH is working with the government’s Food Stamp Nutirition Program
to encourage higher produce consumption. Under one proposed program,
food stamp recipients could get more stamps if they used them to buy
fresh produce.
Pivonka also pointed out that the new free fruit and vegetable program
outlined in the child nutrition bill, passed by Congress June 23 and
signed by president Bush June 30, requires that the majority of participating
schools be those in which at least half of the students are eligible
for free or reduced-price meals.
Not all low-income households are similarly deprived of produce, the
USDA study found. Households where at least one member is 75 or older
spend more money on fruits and vegetables that younger households.
And those households headed by someone with a college education are
also more likely to buy produce. In fact, household heads with a college
education spend a significantly higher amount on fruits and vegetables
than do other households, regardless of income level, the study found.
College graduates spent and average of $5.99 a week per household
member on fruits and vegetables in 2000. Highschool graduates, by
contrast, spent just $4.25.
