Our aim is to collect 200 survey responses from CalFresh customers at each store so that we have a representative sample of shoppers. The program quickly grew statewide to 240+ farmers markets and grocery stores powered by federal, state, and philanthropic support. Double Up Food Bucks helps those in need get access to good, nutritious food. However, Food Bowl 99 has anecdotally reported that they have begun switching the supply of some items (e.g.

Goal 3: Broader and deeper support for expanding healthy food incentives statewide at grocery stores and farmers markets among policymakers, food system stakeholders, and the general public in California. At the conclusion of our pilot, we will release the final report through SPUR's website and reach out to media to share our findings as well.

As we noted earlier, we have also seen strong interest in the media in healthy food incentives which is reflective of a larger public interest in how this policy tool can help make healthy food more affordable while also supporting local agricultural economies. Fair Food Network manages a national network of projects using the Double Up Food Bucks brand and will compile our results with those of other grocery and farmers' market incentive projects. Its a win-win-win: more healthy food for families, better business for farmers, and a boost for local economies.

We are still running the pilot for nearly a full year, but it is the 2017 calendar year rather than our original plan of summer 2016 - summer 2017. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As part of the Double Up Food Bucks program, SPUR staff has provided training to numerous project partners.

And, a county supervisor is now considering putting money from the county budget toward an extension of our project.

A decade ago, Fair Food Network collaborated with five Detroit farmers markets to field test the idea of healthy food incentives through a pilot program called Double Up Food Bucks. Westat is conducting the official multi-site evaluation of all FINI grantees. Statewide Success Double Up is defined by its uniform design and brand, supporting strong customer awareness and streamlined implementation.

At Arteaga's, the primary delay was caused by IT contractors underperforming. To redeem the coupon, the cashier types in a numerical code printed onto the coupon and the discount is applied to any fresh produce items the customer has purchased. Goal 1: Improved food security and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables among CalFresh families in our target neighborhoods Because Double Up Food Bucks has only been available to CalFresh families since late February, we do not yet have enough data to determine what impact we have had on food security and fruit and vegetable consumption. Arteaga's Food Center uses NCR's ISS 45 point of sale system and, working with store management and their IT vendor, we were able to successfully design an integrated bounce-back coupon system. Diverse Outlets We are now actively in discussion with them regarding the feasibility of their participation. Our Double Up Food Bucks program is a national model for nutrition incentives active in 28 states and growing.

garlic) and stocking additional items (e.g. We continue to partner with communities where we can make the biggest difference, applying our years of on-the-ground experience so they can hit the ground running. Local Agriculture

Double Up is making a difference in communities nationwide. Double Up matches SNAP, or food stamps, spent on fruits and vegetables. Local agriculture remains a key feature in the grocery setting with participating stores committing to strong local sourcing. One the private sector side, two grocery companies reached out to SPUR asking how they could join the Double Up Food Bucks pilot in the past two months. Plus, Fair Food Network is on-hand to help partners get started and succeed with individualized coaching, cross-site networking, and ongoing insights from our work in Michigan and other Double Up communities. Cashiers at both participating Arteaga's stores ring their customers up as normal and, if the customer has CA-grown produce in their basket and pays with SNAP, a coupon is automatically generated that matches, penny-for-penny the value of CA-grown fresh produce in the basket (up to $10). - Increase the number of tours we give to elected officials and policymakers ImpactsWhat was accomplished under these goals? Looking at the limited data that we already have, however, there are strong signs that our project has been well received and is reaching thousands of families. A Grocery Store for Every American Gets a Boost, Double Up Food Bucks 2021 Annual Impact Report, Fair Food Network Repairs the World Through Food, Oran Hesterman to Step Down from Fair Food Network, The Economic Contributions of Healthy Food Incentives. Beginning this month, produce managers at all three stores are also meeting with staff from Community Alliance with Family Farmers, who are providing technical assistance to the store to increase their procurement of local and California-grown produce.

SPUR attempted to find other contractors who could do the work, but we were unsuccessful in doing so. SPUR worked with a custom programmer to design this system and we expect that it should be transferable to other stores at a cost of less than $1,500 per store. Grocery Game Changer See the big impact were having in one community Flint, Michigan, in the wake of the citys water crisis. pearl onions) to maximize the amount of California-grown produce they have available in their store. Proving Ground

All Rights Reserved. At this rate, and with three stores participating (which is one less than we had originally sought to include in the pilot), we are unsure whether we will reach our goal of distributing $200,000 in incentives. It wasn't until Food Bowl 99 upgraded their entire point-of-sale system that they were able to begin offering Double Up Food Bucks. Publications, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, SAN FRANCISCO PLANNING AND URBAN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION, 704 - Nutrition and Hunger in the Population. Both SPUR staff members working on this program have learned and/or sharpened skills during the pilot, including executing various types of evaluation; public speaking; media interviewing; and community outreach techniques. Our customer intercept survey, which is currently underway, is asking questions that will help us gauge this. Over a decade ago, Fair Food Network collaborated with five Detroit, Michigan farmers markets to field test the idea of healthy food incentives in farmers markets.

No matter the retail setting, Double Up maintains strong local sourcing and remains a win for family farmers. Since our launch, we have conducted outreach through a variety of channels described in the table below.

Double Up is a complete package, ready to be adopted by partners nationwide. One small change we have made is that, going forward, all the in-store marketing material we provide to Arteaga's will be in Spanish.

In nearly all forms of our outreach, we are engaging CalFresh families in the three languages that are most common among CalFresh participants in Santa Clara County: English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Outreach Efforts Description Est.

Additionally, we will be providing data to the Fair Food Network as well as USDA's evaluator, Westat. We are also growing a nationwide community of practice through the Nutrition Incentive Hubsharing tools, lessons learned, and innovations to ensure Double Up remains a win for families, farmers, local markets, and grocers it serves. At two stores, we began with a "soft-launch", where the only marketing of the program was within the grocery stores. Download our National Impact Overview for more results. SNAP represents the largest federal investment in our food and farm systemat more than $70 billion dollars a year. We are currently considering bringing another store into the program, which would make it more likely that we would reach that goal. Dig into our 2021 Impact Report to see how Double Up programs in 30 states stepped up to bring affordable fruits and vegetables within reach of every family while generating $50+ million in SNAP and Double Up dollars supporting local farmers and grocers. Download our Michigan impact overview for more results. At Food Bowl 99, we had anticipated easily being able to duplicate a promotion program that was used at an independent grocery store in Michigan. Combined, all the technical delays meant that we didn't launch Double Up Food Bucks until February 2017, which was six months after we had intended to begin. Double Up matches food stamp dollars spent on fresh fruits and vegetables. Coupon redemption data from one of our stores, Food Bowl 99, shows that within just the first three months of the program 1,200 unique CalFresh households have redeemed Double Up Food Bucks coupons. Goal 2: Increased sales of California grown produce at participating grocery stores, especially local produce We are collecting store sales data to measure this aspect of our program, but our evaluator has not yet completed the analysis.

This allowed us to test systems with real-life transactions before more broadly advertising the program's availability to the public. Today Double Up is active in 30 states and growing. What if we could harness even a small percentage of those dollars toward fresh, healthy, locally grown food? As a result, the project was delayed by five months. In the Michigan program, local sourcing is generating big wins for Michigan farmers: In 2019, independent grocers purchased $1.57+ million in Michigan produce during the peak growing season. 2022 Fair Food Network.

Progress 05/15/16 to 05/14/17OutputsTarget Audience:SPUR's Santa Clara County Healthy Food Incentive Grocery Project, which is also known as Double Up Food Bucks California, began distributing incentives to CalFresh families in late January 2017. Num. We have seen strong interest in healthy food incentives from elected officials, grocers, and the media since launching Double Up Food Bucks in California. Between February 22nd and April 30th, CalFresh families redeemed more than 3,400 coupons. Double Up is a proven game changer in the grocery setting, helping stores distinguish themselves in the marketplace, attract new customers while encouraging loyalty. We learned, after starting the pilot, that more than 90% of their customers are primarily Spanish speaking and, therefore, material printed in English provides limited benefit.

This includes cashiers at all the participating grocery stores, CalFresh benefits staff at Social Service Agency offices across the county, and local Spanish-speaking community health outreach workers (known as "promotoras") affiliated with the Food Bank.

Two stores - an Arteaga's Food Center and Food Bowl 99 - are in San Jose, CA. However, a month into the project, we learned that the promotion program in Michigan was not compatible with the older version of the ACS operating system used at Food Bowl 99. We will review the survey findings and may make changes to our outreach strategy based on what obstacles respondents cite as reasons they have not used Double Up Food Bucks. Three weeks later, on February 22nd, we held a kick-off event that marked our "hard launch" at all three participating grocery stores. The average value of each coupon redeemed during that time was $3.41. Goal 4: Further refinement of bounce-back coupon incentive distribution technology. We are in conversation with two different stores now and will make the decision based on whether we have the budget available to handle the store's expected volume, the demographics of the store's customer base and neighborhood, which POS system the store uses, and the store's commitment to the project. In 2020, sales of SNAP and Double Up topped $28 million in farmers markets and grocery stores. We continue to grow and innovate the Double Up model to bring healthy food to more families, through more farmers, in more locations. We anticipate that the volume and average value of redemption will increase as California enters its prime growing season, during which customers will likely earn more coupons based on buying California-grown products, especially fruit. As we receive more detailed evaluation results from our evaluator, John Snow Inc., we will begin disseminating those with potential funders and project partners. Double Up is proven to work in all the places people buy food in their communities from farmers markets to grocery stores.

To learn more about our Nutrition Incentive Hub or explore bringing Double Up to your community, email us at info@doubleupfoodbucks.org.

Fair Food Network led the expansion of incentives into grocery stores in 2013 through one of the first pilots in the nation. We have targeted our outreach efforts to the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the stores, as that is the population most likely to shop at the stores. of Unique Households Reached Coupon distribution/redemption within stores Number of households (based on last four digits of their EBT card) who have either earned or redeemed Double Up Food Bucks coupons 2,000 In-store greeters Staff from Second Harvest Food Bank spend 2 hours per week at each store greeting customers and letting them know about the program 1,200 Family Resource Centers Staff from FIRST 5 provide information about the program to their clients Data collection still pending Mailing flyers In early March, the Social Services Agency mailed a flyer about the program to the homes of families & individuals participating in CalFresh (SNAP) in the zip codes adjacent to our participating stores 22,000 Text messages In early April, the Social Services Agency sent text messages with a link to our program website to families & individuals participating in CalFresh (SNAP) in the zip codes adjacent to our participating stores 18,000 Automated telephone calls In early April, the Social Services Agency sent automated phone calls with information about our program to families & individuals participating in CalFresh (SNAP) in the zip codes adjacent to our participating stores 18,000 Double Up Food Bucks California website Unique visitors to our program website since our soft-launch on January 31, 2017 1,935 Changes/Problems:The largest problems we faced in implementing the Double Up Food Bucks pilot were technical obstacles related to setting up the point-of-sale coupon and reporting systems we needed to run the program. To do that we will: - Continue working with our participating grocers to promote the program within the store as much as possible. In 2020 that number more than doubled to $3.64+ million. New innovations seeded in Flint, Michigan are allowing shoppers to carry earned Double Up benefits with them across participating locations, plus shifting physical tokens to electronic and mobile processing. The issues differed by store. The store manager reports that he has added an entire additional day of produce delivery to meet increased demand, which is a very encouraging sign. Uniform Design, Brand We don't have the same unique household data analyzed yet from the other two participating stores, but given their similar levels of CalFresh usage, we anticipate that we have already reached our goal of reaching 2,000 CalFresh families in the county. Congressman Jimmy Panetta took time during a Congressional recess to tour one of our participating stores, with media present.