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PORTLAND, Maine

Michele Polacsek and Rebecca Boulos receive $75,000 grant for research program

Faculty from the School of Community and Population Health, Michele Polacsek, Ph.D., M.H.S., associate professor, principal investigator, and Rebecca Boulos, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant clinical professor, co-principal investigator, were awarded a $75,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research program to begin July 1, 2015.

The project leverages additional resources from the J.T. Gorman Foundation and Coverys Foundation of Boston. Co-investigators include Eric Rimm, ScD, and Anne Thorndike, MD, of the Harvard School of Public Health.

The research study proposes to use implementation methods from the highly effective, double-dollar incentive program used by farmers' markets to increase purchases of fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables in a large grocery store retail setting, ultimately improving nutrition for low-income children and families. 

Currently, there is much interest in incentivizing the purchase of healthier food items among low-income populations, instead of restricting purchases (such as restricting sugar-sweetened beverage purchases with SNAP dollars). Findings from this research will help inform grocery retailer efforts to encourage healthier purchases by low-income populations, and help policymakers identify impactful strategies that support regional system drivers to encourage population level shifts in obesity prevalence.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.