Trending ahead to the year 2050, concerns continue to rise regarding feeding a world population of nearly 10 billion people (Smith, Tarawali, Grace, & Sones, 2013). The United States provides many federal programs to feed the hungry (Talk Poverty, 2018). Despite these provisions, barriers exist and prevent access to healthy foods (Innis, 2014). Residents in the state of Mississippi are posed with the challenge of accessing nutrient rich foods (Gunderson et al., 2018). In an effort to combat hunger in Mississippi, Mississippi WIC and MDAC have partnered to bridge farmers with low-income residents with the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (“Mississippi Farmers' Market Nutrition,” 2018). Barriers to access – like transportation, location, and market hours – may have an impact on redemtption rates (Conrey, Frongillo, Dollahite, & Griffin, 2003). This descriptive, correlational study used five independent variables to see if these had an impact on FMNP voucher redemption rates.

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abstract: ABSTRACT Fruit and vegetable intake is not uniform across levels of socioeconomic status (SES) and researchers have identified low SES as a risk factor for poor intake of fruits and vegetables. In an effort to eliminate public health disparities and increase fruit and vegetable intake, the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program implemented additional food assistance programs, with a specific emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables. The Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) provides pre-existing WIC clients with coupons to purchase fresh, locally grown produce at farmers' markets. In addition, Congress also approved the WIC Cash Value Voucher (CVV) program, which provides WIC participants with vouchers to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets or grocery stores. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the relation of FMNP coupon use with accessibility and WIC CVV redemption rates at farmers' markets. Furthermore, this thesis addressed whether WIC shoppers redeemed a higher percentage of their WIC CVV value at farmers' markets or grocery stores. WIC CVV and FMNP issuance and redemption data were analyzed to establish overall redemption rates and total perecent of WIC CVV value redeemed. Accessibility was assessed using the Geographic Information System, which allowed me to calculate the distance that WIC participants would have to travel to redeem their FMNP coupons at FMNP-approved farmers' markets. The results showed that less than 1% of WIC shoppers redeem their WIC CVVs at farmers'markets in Arizona. However, the redemption of WIC CVV was significantly higher during the months when shoppers had the option of using both WIC CVV and FMNP coupons at farmers' markets. Furthermore, the percent of total CVV value redeemed at farmers' markets was 99%, significantly higher than grocery stores (93.5%). Average FMNP coupon redemption rates for 2008-2010 was 43.3%, well below the national average of 59%. However, my spatial analysis revealed that there was no significant association between the distance traveled to farmers' markets and FMNP redemption rates. This indicates that the distance traveled to farmers' markets is not a major barrier to redemption of FMNP coupons in Arizona. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Nutrition 2012