Obesity: Influencing Behavioral Consumption Through Meal Kit Distribution

Founded in 2002, Everyone’s Harvest is a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to providing access to healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables through certified farmers markets and community food programs. Its key initiatives—Fresh Rx, Market Match, Edible Education and Farms Together —focus on alleviating nutrition insecurity and combating diet-related health conditions by providing vulnerable populations the resources to purchase, or receive, fresh produce and gain nutritional knowledge. This study explores a new intervention: the distribution of farmers' market meal kits as a complementary strategy to the current Edible Education program. These meal kits, which feature seasonally available produce and pre-measured ingredients, aim to strengthen participants' cooking skills and promote healthier eating habits at home. Using a stratified sampling approach, the study compares the behavioral outcomes of participants who receive either a voucher or meal kit. Surveys will gather data on participants' comfort with cooking the provided recipes and their likelihood of preparing meals at home. Initial findings indicate that meal kits not only improve participants' ability to prepare healthy meals, but also provide greater value for money, enabling the creation of more balanced meals than vouchers alone. The meal kit intervention shows promise as an effective strategy for improving health outcomes in vulnerable communities, particularly in combating the rising rates of obesity and diet-related health issues in Monterey County. This research offers valuable insights into the potential of meal kits as a sustainable solution for enhancing diet quality in populations who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.