Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) and Instacart has released the findings of a pilot program that expanded access to fruits and vegetables for families with lower incomes by including frozen produce as an option.
Conducted as an extension of PHA’s flagship Good Food at Home program, the pilot was supported by AFFI and delivered through Instacart in Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
The Good Food at Home Fall/Winter 2024 pilot provided participating families with $80 per month for three months in Instacart Health Fresh Funds grocery vouchers to purchase fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables for delivery. The results confirm that including frozen produce is a practical and highly effective strategy for increasing both produce access and consumption, establishing a new model for food security initiatives nationwide.
“This pilot program with PHA is a powerful demonstration that frozen foods ensure affordable and practical nutrition is available in every community in every season,” said Alison Bodor, president and CEO of the American Frozen Food Institute.
“By using freezing as nature’s pause button, frozen food makers lock in the nutrients and quality of farm-fresh produce. This means households have year-round access to fruits and vegetables, reducing food waste and helping stretch their food budget further. The data confirms that frozen foods play a central role in ensuring nutrition security and are welcome solutions for today’s busy households.”
Key findings highlight the value of frozen produce
The evaluation demonstrated that frozen fruits and vegetables support nutrition access and healthy eating for households, especially those facing nutrition insecurity.
- Frozen’s extended shelf life drives purchases: The top reason cited by 73 percent of survey respondents for purchasing frozen produce was that it lasts much longer, addressing a major barrier to fruit and vegetable consumption: spoilage and food waste.
- Practical solution: Nearly all participants, 99 percent, reported already having some type of freezer capacity at home, indicating that frozen fruits and vegetables are a practical nutrition solution for nearly all low-income households.
- Making healthy eating attainable: Participants reported that frozen fruits and vegetables help them save money, are convenient and are easy to prepare.
- Variety and nutrition: Frozen options, such as mixed vegetables (31 percent) and fruit mixes (29 percent), were popular, allowing families to add nutrient-rich, easy-to-prepare foods to their meals and diversifying their diets with items like strawberries, mango, broccoli and corn.
- Pairing with nutrition education and healthy eating incentives drives change: With financial support to purchase produce and information to educate about the benefits of frozen, participants reported increased frozen vegetable purchasing following the program.
Across the three cities in the pilot, participants showed high engagement and reported positive outcomes. More than 75 percent of program participants in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago made at least one purchase with their Fresh Funds and also indicated that the access to produce helped their families build a habit of eating more fruits and vegetables. More than 200,000 total additional servings of fruits and vegetables were made possible through the program.
Overall, 93 percent of Philadelphia and Chicago respondents said that Fresh Funds allowed them to buy more fruits and vegetables than they could usually afford, and 85 percent of Baltimore respondents reported the same.
“Thanks to our partnership with AFFI, the addition of frozen fruits and vegetables marks a breakthrough in nutritious food access,” said Noreen Springstead, president and CEO of Partnership for a Healthier America.
“Our traditional approach of providing produce boxes or credits for fresh items, while effective, often overlooked the issue of perishability for families with limited time, money and transportation. The positive response to frozen produce – from preventing waste to diversifying diets – proves that it is a critical, modern and practical solution for driving food equity. By expanding the eligibility to include frozen, we are taking a major step forward in ensuring that every family, in every zip code, has dignified access to good food.”
Based on the success of this pilot, PHA is including frozen fruits and vegetables in all of its Good Food at Home programming moving forward.
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