In 2020, the Walmart Foundation awarded grants to 11 community-based projects offering innovative approaches to supporting healthy food access. The grants focused on initiatives that improve access to fresh foods for regions and populations experiencing disproportionately high rates of food insecurity. The Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ), one of the 11 grantees, focused on combining health care and fresh produce incentives to reduce the risk of food insecurity in three food-insecure communities in Oklahoma.

Key features of the initiative included encouraging clinicians to identify patients who might be facing food insecurity and informing those patients of the opportunity to sign up for a program that provides funds for purchasing fresh produce at local farmers' markets. We found that incentive programs that help low-income consumers stretch their dollars to purchase produce can be an important tool for increasing access to healthy foods.