Effects of a food hub initiative in a disadvantaged community: A quasi-experimental evaluation

A quasi-experiment evaluated a food hub's (FH) impact in a low-income/low-access (food desert) setting on fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake, diet quality, kilocalories, perceived food environment, BMI, and farmers' market shopping versus a matched community (n = 265 FH, n = 262 Comparison). Comparison shoppers had better baseline perceptions of their food environment, but FH shoppers improved significantly more than Comparison shoppers. Comparison shoppers significantly increased F&V intake versus FH shoppers. Effects were not significant for other diet outcomes, BMI, or farmers' market shopping. Factors besides spacial access to healthy food need consideration to address dietary intake and obesity in disadvantaged communities. •A food hub did not improve dietary intake or body mass index in a food desert setting.•Change in farmers' market use did not differ between food hub and comparison groups.•Food environment perceptions improved more in the food hub than the comparison group.•Mobile market stops increased but the food hub group's mobile market use did not.•Farmers' market relocation to the food hub site did not predict SNAP sales growth.