Increasing Access to Healthy Foods is Crucial to Improving Health in Rural Communities. This Project Expands the Ripe for Revival Mobile Market, Provides Vouchers to Those at Greatest Risk of Diet-related Chronic Disease, and Assesses the Nutrition-related Impacts.

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Diet Interventions; Food Security; Nutrition Security; Fruit and Vegetable Intake

• Registration Number: NCT07218978
• Lead Sponsor: North Carolina State University

Brief Summary

Increasing access to healthy foods is crucial to combating chronic disease in rural communities. The Ripe for Revival mobile market, a non-profit eastern NC-based mobile market, seeks to improve healthy food access among those at greatest risk of food insecurity and poor health. By implementing vouchers at the mobile market, we will help make healthy food affordable and accessible. This project is poised to improve diet and health among rural residents in eight counties and promote sustainable local food systems in North Carolina.

Detailed Description

Increasing fruit and vegetable (FV) intake and reducing saturated fat, salt, and added sugar are central lifestyle recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to prevent chronic disease. Yet, while diet is modifiable, rural families face structural and systemic inequities that make accessing affordable, healthy food more difficult.

Recognizing these disparities and adverse impacts, there is a clear need to create opportunities for improved nutrition through comprehensive solutions that account for rurality, affordability, and accessibility. One potential strategy to improve rural food access is mobile markets. Ripe for Revival is a 501(c)3 based in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, with a mission to increase access to fresh foods in lower-resourced communities with a mobile market model. Ripe for Revival owns and operates a produce farm, purchases excess food from eastern NC farmers, and then sells fresh foods to patrons at roughly 20% discounted prices through its mobile market. The mobile market (a retrofitted school bus) offers fresh produce, eggs, meat, and milk weekly in eastern and central NC counties This project continues NC State Extension's partnership with Ripe for Revival to implement vouchers to help increase mobile market affordability and assess program impacts among rural NC families. The specific aims of this proposed study include:

Aim 1. Determine the nutrition-related impacts of mobile market vouchers among Ripe for Revival patrons in six rural eastern NC counties (Bertie, Halifax, Hertford, Lenoir, Northampton, and Washington).

Aim 2. Examine voucher redemption rates, volume and dollars of local produce purchased, and suggestions for mobile market improvements among Ripe for Revival mobile market customers.

This proposed project will promote health and advance equity among underserved rural families. The project addresses barriers to equitable food access, promotes a balanced diet to prevent chronic disease, and fosters sustainable local agriculture through a mobile market model.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2025-08-08
• Status Verified: 2025-10
• Study First Submitted: 2025-10-17
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-10-17
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-10-17
• Study First Posted: 2025-10-21
• Last Update Posted: 2025-10-21
• Primary Completion: 2027-06-30
• Study Completion: 2027-06-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 150

Inclusion Criteria

(1) 18 years of age or older; (2) communicate fluently in English or Spanish; (3) an active participant in an NC Cooperative Extension program May 2025 - June 2027; (4) at risk of food insecurity; (5) willing to shop at or visit a Ripe for Revival mobile produce market; (6) willing to use the provided $20 monthly voucher to shop at the Ripe for Revival mobile produce market; and (7) work or live in a North Carolina county where this study is being conducted, including Bertie, Halifax, Hertford, Jones, Lenoir, Northampton, Warren, or Washington.

Exclusion Criteria

• Individuals who do not meet the inclusion criteria above cannot participate

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Skin Carotenoids	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Fruit and vegetable intake measured by skin carotenoids (derived from a validated reflection spectroscopy device, Veggie Meter®

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Fruit and vegetable intake	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Measured by DSQ FV Module - GusNIP NTAE Survey
Weight/Body Mass Index	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Weight/Body Mass Index. Weight measured by electronic scale with standiometer SECA 874 as the average of two measures. Height (baseline only).
Blood Pressure	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Blood pressure measured by noninvasive automated monitor (Omron HEM-907XL, Vernon Hills, IL) with a first measure after seated for 5 minutes and 2 repeat measures at 1-minute intervals.
Food Security Status	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Food security status measured by USDA household 6-item screener
Nutrition Security Status	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Measured by the Center for Nutrition \& Health Impact 4-item Nutrition Security Screener
Food Utilization	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Measured by the Center for Nutrition \& Health Policy Impact 4-item screener
Voucher Redemption Rate	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Measured by Mobile Market POS system
Pounds of produce/local produce volume	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Measured by mobile market POS system
Mobile Produce Market Satisfaction	Enrollment/baseline (week 0), 4 weeks, 8 weeks and at 12-16 weeks	Measured by self-reported survey

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

NC State University; 🇺🇸 Raleigh, North Carolina, United States