Summary
This report presents findings of an evaluation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) project in Los Angeles County. SNAP-Ed was formerly known as the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention (NEOP) program.
SNAP-Ed supports strategies that promote healthy eating, active living, and healthy and safe environments. Alongside traditional nutrition education services, recent SNAP-Ed efforts have sought to identify complementary ways to improve health, through policy, systems, and environmental change strategies that promote healthy behaviors among adults and children who have limited access to nutritious foods.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention contracted with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research to evaluate the long-term impacts of five program strategies: nutrition education, farmers’ markets, healthy retail, community gardens, and healthy food and beverage standards. The evaluation looked at the prevalence of chronic health conditions in two of the high needs Service Planning Areas (SPAs) in Los Angeles County, SPA 4 and SPA 6.
The report describes the size, scope, investment and estimated reach of the SNAP-Ed strategies to date, and the estimated impact of these strategies in SPAs 4 and 6 if they were sustained over the next 25 years. This report uses data from the 2001-2014 California Health Interview Surveys (CHIS).