Ramping up research to combat hunger

Alicia Powers, managing director for the Hunger Solutions Institute (HSI) in Auburn’s College of Human Sciences, is on a mission to strategically build healthy, resilient communities. Her research and service efforts with HSI — including nutrition incentive programs for SNAP households in Alabama and beyond — have made many take notice and take action. 

Under Powers’ leadership, HSI has to-date received nearly $10 million in funding toward research and programs that directly address hunger in food insecure communities.

Alabama nutrition incentive program receives a boost

One of HSI’s most successful projects is Double Up Food Bucks Alabama. Funded by a $1 million grant from the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and matching funders, Double Up Food Bucks helps Alabama residents have access to healthy, fresh produce. Launched in September 2021, Double Up Food Bucks Alabama makes fresh, healthy produce more accessible to all, allowing Alabama residents who use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase double the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers at farmers markets and independent grocers.

“When SNAP participants utilize their EBT card at participating locations to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, they get a dollar-for-dollar match to purchase more fresh fruits and vegetables,” Powers said. “HSI received the grant to fund the program and partnered with retailers to support the nutrition incentive.” 

More than 15% of the Alabama population, or 725,000 residents, participate in SNAP. Double Up Food Bucks Alabama is in its third year and currently serves six counties. Power’s goal is to obtain additional federal, state and private funding, so the program can expand to more areas of the state.

Add Milk! takes dairy incentives nationwide

This fall, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service awarded HSI a nearly $4 million grant for the 2023 Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives program (HFMI 2023), the second award to HSI since 2022. Combined, HSI has received $7 million to continue developing and testing methods to increase the purchase and consumption of nonfat and low-fat milk among low-income consumers participating in SNAP. HFMI 2023 will significantly expand the current Add Milk! pilot project.

HSI launched Add Milk! in 2022 with a nearly $3 million grant from the USDA. Add Milk! seeks to increase the purchase of nonfat and low-fat milk by SNAP participants. Similar to Double Up Food Bucks, for every dollar of SNAP benefits a participant uses to purchase healthy fluid milk at a participating location, Add Milk! provides a dollar for dollar incentive as a coupon to redeem for additional SNAP items. In 2022, the program operated in four states at 116 locations. 

“Nutrition incentive programs make healthier foods more accessible to individuals who may be living on a limited budget. Milk provides 13 nutrients in one glass, and nutritionally dense foods can help individuals live a healthier lifestyle,” Powers said. 

With the new funding, Add Milk! will add 575 participating locations operated by 16 partnering retailers in 16 states and shift the model to an automatic 50% discount for qualifying milk purchases of nonfat or low-fat milk. 

In addition to Powers, HFMI researchers include Kara Newby, project administrator for HSI, and Joel Cuffey, an agriculture economist in Auburn’s College of Agriculture. They are investigating the use and effectiveness of Add Milk! along with determining how the nutrition incentive influences use of SNAP dollars. Analyses to-date revealed SNAP households are utilizing the incentive to stretch their SNAP dollars throughout the month and support the purchase of healthier foods. 

“Cuffey’s research is helping us understand how the program is working, how it is supporting SNAP households and what we can do to improve it,” Powers said. 

“Milk, fruits and vegetables are all essential components of a healthy diet, and they tend to be a bit more expensive than foods that are not as nutritionally dense,” she added. “The benefits of these nutrition incentive programs is to make healthier foods more accessible to individuals who may be living on a limited budget. From a public health nutrition perspective, nutrition incentives are incredible programs.”

The new grant will also allow HSI to expand its research scope to better understand SNAP-authorized retailers — including independent retail grocers, supercenters that combine groceries and a department store and convenience stores — to further inform scaling the program.

“Research is at the core of all we do at Auburn University, with the end goal being to find ways to enhance quality of life for individuals, families and communities,” said Susan Hubbard, dean of the College of Human Sciences at Auburn. “We are proud of Alicia Powers’ leadership through the Hunger Solutions Institute, and to know this effort to put healthy options on the tables of low-income families is growing from four states to 16 in less than a year is phenomenal.”

Student and university engagement

HSI hosts workshops that bring together nationwide researchers focusing on nutrition incentives. Powers also facilitates collaboration through two, international networks: Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFWH) and Presidents United to Solve Hunger (PUSH).

“UFWH is focused on amplifying the voice of the rising generation of college students,” Powers said. “HSI supports student chapters on college campuses in the United States and abroad. HSI offers monthly activities to encourage UFWH chapters to raise awareness and advocate for hunger issues and solutions.”

HSI hosts an annual summit alongside a university that has a UFWH chapter. The grassroots effort engages college students to raise awareness, take action and advocate for food and nutrition security efforts locally, nationally and internationally. 

PUSH works with college presidents and chancellors who sign a commitment that hunger will be a foundational priority of their university through teaching, research or service.

“We have 115 signatories for presidents and chancellors, and we host a leaders forum each year for those presidents and chancellors in conjunction with our UFWH summit,” Powers said. “To solve hunger, our collaborators want to remain engaged, informed and active.”