They call it the ‘triple win’ – it’s good for peoples’ health, for farmers, and for community economies. It is how Boulder, Colorado, uses the money it earns by taxing soda drinks locally to help people buy healthy food, like fruits and vegetables.

People tell researchers that they think it’s really cool that the sugar that caused their diabetes is now funding their fruits and vegetables. “They get a real kick out of knowing it’s funded by sugary drink taxes because, they say, ‘Wow, so you’re turning the sugar that caused my diabetes into fruits and vegetables for me. That is really cool.’ “

It’s a result of the Fruit and Veg program started by the Boulder County Public Health Department in 2019, after Boulder approved taxing sugary drinks locally. The department had noticed that many people were missing out on programs like SNAP which help people with federal food benefits get extra fresh produce.

Some people didn’t qualify because of their immigration status, or made too much money to qualify for SNAP but still couldn’t afford to buy fresh produce. The program serves about 580 families in both Boulder and neighboring Longmont, most of them of mixed immigration status.

Coupons for the program are distributed by the department and community groups once every three months. A family of two gets $40 a month in coupons, families of four and up get $80, and the coupons can be used pretty much anywhere in town where you can buy fresh produce – from big grocery stores to farm stands. The county health department tracks every coupon and in the third quarter of 2023, in Longmont, 97% of the coupons were redeemed.

“On Tuesday, there was a huge line out the door,” says Ana Karina Casas Ibarra, of El Centro AMISTAD, a community nonprofit. “They’re willing to come in the cold, in the snow for $80 a month of fruits and veggies, which tells you a lot – people are struggling.” She checks in lots of people and when she notices folks are missing, she calls them and reminds them.

She has seen the difference such coupons make. A few years ago, after learning she was prediabetic, her mother enrolled in El Reto Saludable, or “the healthy challenge,” run by Amistad, where Casas Ibarra works. It promotes drinking more water, exercising, and eating healthier.

“She started making changes, and she started eating not only more, but different kinds of veggies,” Casas Ibarra says. “And she was able to change all of that. She lost 20 pounds; she’s not prediabetic anymore.”

Casas Ibarra’s family is from a village in central Mexico, although her parents and brother have all lived in Colorado for many years. “People who come from where I come from, they know how to cook from scratch – what is missing is that access to the variety of fruits and veggies,” she says.

Nutrition incentive programs like Boulder’s Fruit and Veg work, as shown by research. People who get the incentives buy more fruits and vegetables and thus consumer more, says Jim Krieger, executive director of the nonprofit Healthy Food America.

Amy Lazarus Yaroch, who runs the national Nutrition Incentive Hub, explains why it’s a triple win. “It’s good for the consumer who lives in that particular community because they’re getting the healthy food, it’s good for the farmer who is either at farmer’s markets generating income or selling his or her wares at grocery stores, and then it’s good for the economy.”

Sources:

To get fresh vegetables to people who need them, one city puts its soda tax to work NPR, Jan. 15, 2024

What do Health Promoters do? Amistad.

Health Equity – El Centro Amistad City of Boulder

Cover image: This great picture, and all the others in this story, come from the website of El Centro Amistad, which created the Promotoras de Salud program in 2016 to help address health disparities within the Latinx immigrant community in Boulder County.