Expanded Food And Nutrition Program Shows $10 Benefit For Each $1 Spent

Creative accounting.

"A program to teach low-income adults about healthy food choices is a good bargain in terms of the health and economic benefits achieved, reports a cost-effectiveness study in the May/June issue of Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

...The cost of the program was about $900 per graduate. A cost-benefit analysis was performed to assess the value of the benefits from a societal perspective, as used by the US Office of Management and Budget. "Cost-effectiveness was estimated to be as great as for many current health interventions," said Dr. Dollahite. The quality-of-life improvements produced by EFNEP were estimated to be worth more than $49 million. The benefit-to-cost ratio was therefore $9.59 per $1 - each dollar spent on EFNEP resulted in about $10 in benefits."

Of course, these are likely future projections based on assumptions that whatever these people were taught will stick forever.

Wanna bet?