Econometrica conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Pilot Project for the Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables. In this Pilot project, participating States and school food authorities used their USDA Foods National School Lunch Program entitlement funds to procure unprocessed fruits and vegetables for school meals from any USDA Pilot-authorized vendor.
Econometrica used administrative data and data from interviews with State Distributing Agency officials to describe the fruits and vegetables purchased and States’ experiences with the Pilot. Econometrica also compared Pilot purchase data to USDA Foods and USDA Department of Defense Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (USDA DoD Fresh) data to better understand how States used the Pilot.
USDA selected the following eight States for the Pilot: California, Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The key findings of the Evaluation of Pilot Project for Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables are published on the USDA’s website.
In addition to the report, Econometrica also created downloadable infographics with data from each Pilot State.
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