WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Representatives Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) and Matt Cartwright (PA-17) introduced the Vegetables Are Really Important Eating Tools for You (VARIETY) Act in order to expand the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP) to the entirety of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP. 

“SNAP is one of America’s most vital and successful anti-hunger programs. Put simply, it helps feed hungry people,” said DeLauro. “But current benefits are insufficient for many families to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, leading to a double-edged sword where those same families are battling malnutrition and obesity. Families struggling economically have a harder time affording healthy food options. Over 46 million Americans, almost half of them children, use food stamps in a given year, but health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure cost our country billions of dollars in health care spending. The VARIETY Act will help address both of those problems.”

“SNAP recipients have limited access to fruits and vegetables due to recent price increases in healthy foods.  Our bill aims to broaden the benefits of HIP to all SNAP participants by empowering low-income citizens to purchase more healthy foods for themselves and their families,” Cartwright said.  “We must ensure that the people in our country are adequately fed, and even further, have access to resources that sustain a healthy lifestyle, regardless of their income.  VARIETY will revamp SNAP by targeting the supplemental benefits towards healthy foods.”

HIP, which operated in Hampden County, Massachusetts from November 2011 through April 2013, encouraged the purchase of healthy foods for SNAP participants, refunding them with 30 cents for every dollar they spent on fruits and vegetables on their SNAP Electronic Benefit Transfer card.  This incentive program successfully generated a 25 percent increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables, highlighting the positive impact that promoting healthy food choices can have on SNAP. 

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, increased fruit and vegetable intake can help reduce rates of heart disease and prevent several cancers, which are major causes of death in the United States and huge contributors to the national health care economic burden.  This legislation works to tackle these issues by making fruits and vegetables not only more appealing, but also more accessible to our most vulnerable population. 

Shape Up America!, American Nurses Association, and the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine have endorsed this legislation.