Healthy Food Financing Initiative pursues ineffective strategy – $32 million

Tens of millions of federal dollars are being spent to increase access to healthy foods in low-income communities. Motivating the initiative is the idea that access to healthy food leads to healthier eating. Unfortunately, a number of recent studies and investigations yielded no evidence that the strategy actually works. A review by the Washington Post found: “Multiple studies have scoured local, state and national data looking for a causal relationship between weight and access to healthy food. None have found it.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) itself has questioned the value of such programs to promote access to health foods: “Increasing access to specific foods like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat milk alone may not make a dent in the obesity problem… Without also changing the dietary behaviors of consumers, interventions aimed at increasing access to healthy foods may not be successful in addressing obesity.”