Leveraging Technology to Engage Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Consumers With Children at Farmers Markets:...

Area of Science:

• Community-engaged research
• Human-centered design
• Mobile health interventions

Background:

• Fruit and vegetable consumption is suboptimal among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries due to access barriers.
• Monetary nutrition incentive programs at farmers markets aim to improve diet quality for SNAP consumers.
• A mobile app was designed to increase farmers market and incentive program use among SNAP households with children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the community-engaged development process of a mobile app targeting SNAP households with children.
• To encourage the integration of farmers markets into the food shopping routines of SNAP consumers.
• To improve diet quality by increasing access to fruits and vegetables.

Main Methods:

• Employed a qualitative, community-engaged approach based on human-centered design (inspiration and ideation phases).
• Conducted iterative data collection, including user feedback on interface prototypes and qualitative interviews with SNAP consumers.
• Incorporated end-user preferences and feedback from SNAP consumers, children, and farmers market managers into app development (Version 1).

Main Results:

• Successfully designed Version 1 of the mobile app through a three-stage qualitative, community-engaged process.
• Integrated key features based on user feedback, including market information (location, hours, inventory) and shopping checklists.
• SNAP consumers and farmers market managers expressed significant interest in the app's utility and launch.

Conclusions:

• It is feasible to co-design a community-engaged mobile app with software developers and community nutrition researchers.
• The community-engaged approach was crucial for integrating end-user preferences into the app's design.
• Future research will evaluate the app's impact on farmers market utilization, incentive program use, and fruit and vegetable consumption in low-income families.