Acceptability and Willingness to Pay for a Meal Kit Program for African American Families with Low Income: A Pilot Study

Country: United States
State / Locale: Florida
Population: Single Households, Single/Family with children Households who met low-income qualifications and must qualify for federal food assistance programs.
Community Engagement (IAP2 Spectrum): Collaborate
Equity: People Process

Study Description:
This study aimed to assess the utilization, acceptability, and willingness to pay for a healthy meal kit program among African American main food preparers with low incomes and children (n=36). The researchers partnered with a public high school's Culinary Arts program to create the affordable meal kit intervention, "Slice and Spice," and provided participants with weekly meal kits containing ingredients, recipe cards, a cooking incentive, and nutrition handouts for six weeks. The results showed that the majority of participants found the meals highly acceptable, with over 90% expressing a high level of liking for the recipes. Even the least accepted recipe was still deemed acceptable by more than two-thirds of participants. Moreover, over half of the SNAP-eligible participants would "definitely" be willing to use their benefits to purchase meal kits, indicating potential interest in using such programs to support food access among low-income families.

Carman, K., Sweeney, L. H., House, L. A., Mathews, A. E., & Shelnutt, K. P. (2021). Acceptability and willingness to pay for a meal kit program for African American families with low income: A pilot study. Nutrients, 13(8), 2881.