Project Overview

Develop and test a series of innovative supermarket intervention strategies aimed at increasing the purchase of selected healthy promoted foods. A two-part research project combining qualitative methodology to inform the intervention and quantitative methods to evaluate the effects of the intervention.

Project included a qualitative formative research study of a) community perceptions of the Southwest Baltimore Food Depot’s business practices and food for sale b) the local community’s attitudes toward eating healthy foods and c) perceived barriers to eating healthy foods. This informed culturally appropriate design solutions and potentially sustainable intervention strategies.

For the intervention study, aspects of the food environment in the Southwest Baltimore Food Depot were manipulated and sales were compared to another Food Depot in a similarly low-income area in East Baltimore. The intervention included three modules focusing on 1) training the Food Depot personnel in how to effectively promote healthy food choices, 2) changing the layout and displays of promoted foods, and 3) implementing a price manipulation strategy to promote consumer trial of healthy foods.

Results from this research aim to help identify strategies that can be disseminated to other supermarkets to improve eating patterns in underserved neighborhoods.

Designers

Lauren P. Adams, Aura Seltzer