Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our project is focused on District of Columbia residents who participate in the SNAP program and reside in Low-Income Low-Access (LILA) Communities. In DC, these communities are concentrated in Wards 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. More than 90% of program participants are anticipated to be African American, and a variety of participant ages and household sizes were served. Changes/Problems:As noted in section V, while we saw a rise in earning and redemption of produce incentives in the first year of the program over the baseline from 2023, we did receive feedback from firms, especially smaller firms, that some customers who wanted to purchase GusNIP qualifying produce items were not able to meet our current ($5) project threshold for a qualifying purchase to trigger an incentive. After discussing this with firms, with other community stakeholders, and our NIFA program advisors, we submitted a program modification request on November 6, 2024 to make the changes outlined in section V. This program change is still pending, and should our requested change not be possible, we will continue to work with NIFA and with our project stakeholders to identify ways to address concerns and support increased purchase and consumption of fruits and vegetables in LILA regions of DC. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Healthy Corners has partnered with the University of the District of Columbia's SNAP-Ed program to create and deliver three evidence-based nutrition trainings for SNAP Match store owners and managers. We conducted more than 100 technical trainings on program-related material such as SNAP Match onboarding and program training, WIC onboarding and follow up, operational and technical support, sales and waste data trends, and goal setting. These trainings are primarily provided by the two Healthy Corners Program Specialists, one of whom is a graduate of the SNAP Employment & Training-funded Culinary Job Training program at DC Central Kitchen. In addition to one-on-one technical assistance, Healthy Corners worked with owners through the Store Owner Community of Practice, a working group of corner store owners to discuss common topics of interest. Twenty SNAP Match store owners participated in this group, which meets quarterly. Our first session of the year was a store owner listening session, specifically gathering information on priorities. Following this initial session, we hosted the DC Peace Team for a session on improving store safety, and a session with Capital Impact Partners on business development and small business grant writing. We also continued working with UDC SNAP-Ed to bring store owners to nutrition trainings, offering three sessions last year. We look forward to continuing both of these recurring meetings in the coming year. The project also opened up additional training opportunities for Healthy Corners staff via the Nutrition Incentive Hub. Staff attended and presented at Nutrition Incentive Hub community of practice trainings, participated in a local sourcing cohort that began in August 2023 and continued into the grant term, and a staff member attended the "New to GusNIP" mini convening in June 2024. These trainings provided staff with both training and networking resources that focused on learning best practice and developing practical solutions to local sourcing challenges. DC Central Kitchen also connected with a volunteer consultant through the International Fresh Produce Association; the consultant met with Healthy Corners staff in fall 2023 and again in November 2024, and provided insights into program operations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?ur team has direct and ongoing contact with our community of interest through various avenues. We participate in the DC Food Policy Council's Food Equity and Access working group to share program updates and relevant results with community members. The program was most recently highlighted by the DC Food Policy Council in a report to the Council of the District of Columbia assessing the food system in 2023 and calling out Healthy Corners as a key source of food in low-income, low-access neighborhoods in DC. We work closely with government agencies like the DC Department of Health and DC WIC State Agency. In the reporting year, we have hosted key staff and leadership from the DC Food Policy Council, the DC Department of Human Services, and DC Health, as well as representatives from DC's Advisory Neighborhood Commission system, who advise the District government on issues that impact corner store retailers such as zoning, economic development, and food and beverage licenses. An estimated 100 visitors from peer nonprofits, academic researchers, policymakers, and practitioners visited the Klein Center for these types of visits in the grant term. Most notably, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was able to see the impact of this project in December 2023 when he visited the Klein Center for a tour and roundtable discussion with DC Central Kitchen staff, Healthy Corners SNAP Match store owner Amanda Stephenson, and local farmers and food hub operators from Maryland, DC, and West Virginia to discuss the importance of investing in the local food economy. "I love what you're doing with the corner stores," the Secretary said to assembled staff, guests, and press. "I believe DC Central Kitchen is reflective of programs that work, reflective of the importance of nutrition programs, of work that we're doing to ensure that people have access to decent food on every corner of every city." Our status as a GusNIP grantee also fostered partnership development with national entities such as the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) and International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA), hosting association staff and members for tours of our facility and meetings with our program staff. IFPA also coordinated with DC to bring USDA Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small for a tour of Smothers Elementary School during National School Breakfast Week on March 7, 2024, which had the opportunity to highlight the ways our Healthy School Foods program (itself the recent recipient of a USDA Patrick Leahy Farm-to-School grant) features local produce in meals. Our school program and our GusNIP project are closely aligned, as the Healthy Corners has always worked with corner stores in the same neighborhoods as the 30 schools we serve through Healthy School Foods, enabling students to eat scratch-cooked meals with local, seasonal produce at school and their families to purchase the same ingredients for cooking at home. DC Central Kitchen was subsequently invited by IFPA to promote fresh produce consumption (and recovery of surplus produce) at the White House for the official "Hallo-READ" Halloween event on October 30, 2024. Our Store Navigators model employs part-time passionate Healthy Corners shoppers; in 2024, we grew from two navigators to three, and in December 2024 (outside this reporting year) we added two additional Navigators, bringing our total to four. Store Navigators serve as community liaisons with participating retailers and customers; one of our priorities in this growth was to hire navigators residing in Wards 1, 4, and 5 where we are growing the program's geographic reach. We empower them to share updates directly with friends, neighborhoods, the stores in each of their portfolios, and other members of the community. We also organize and host weekly community engagement opportunities at Healthy Corners store locations throughout the city as well as in community gathering spaces. These store events, which are attended by Store Navigators, feature recipe cards from UDC SNAP-Ed and chef demonstrations with samples, all of which use produce on sale at the store. Through our Healthy Corners Shopper App, we send text messages directly to community members, updating them on products, pricing, store participation news, and we highlight the nutritional benefits of featured fruits and vegetables. DC Central Kitchen provides bi-weekly texts to partner retailers. In August and September, we ran a marketing campaign on bus shelters and through iHeartMedia channels to reach customers online in targeted geographies. This year's marketing campaign specifically highlighted local produce offerings and a "healthy food, healthy families" message. The program has also placed advertisements in local online and print publications, including the Washington Informer, and received press coverage by the Washington Informer and Food Tank. Lastly, we translated SNAP Match promotional materials and store training materials into both Spanish and Amharic, to expand access to program information for speakers of those languages. Spanish and Amharic are the 2nd and 3rd most commonly spoken languages in the District of Columbia, respectively. Prior program experience has underscored the importance of native-language materials and communications among store customers, store staff, and community partners, making this investment a crucial one in growing community awareness and buy-in for the program. Our investments in advertising and communicating about SNAP Match have paid off, as we saw an increase in shopper awareness of the SNAP Match program from our annual survey of Healthy Corners customers (conducted separately from the GusNIP evaluation. Of the survey respondents who used SNAP, 56% were aware of SNAP Match (up from 38% last year) and 63% of SNAP participants who were aware of the program had used it in the last 30 days (up from 29% last year). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We anticipate continuing to expand access to produce incentives via new stores, continuing our expansion into Wards 1 and 4 and moving towards our end-of-grant goal of 38-40 SNAP Match retailers. We will continue firm-level engagement efforts such as the Store Owner Community of Practice and trainings with UDC SNAP-Ed, and consumer-level outreach such as Healthy Corner store events, advertising campaigns, and engagement through the Healthy Corners app. Our partnership with UDC SNAP-Ed is expanding through shifting our quarterly store owner nutrition trainings to quarterly "Harvest of the Season" trainings, which will focus on a local product offering and share nutrition and other relevant information on the product, including a virtual chef demonstration. The first Harvest of the Season, featuring collards, in November was attended by 20 corner store partners. DC Central Kitchen and UDC SNAP-Ed will continue to host an annual comprehensive nutrition training for new stores and new store staff. Building on the success of the store owner community of practices, which help retailers connect with each other, we will also look at ways to deepen our support for Store Navigators. We have already taken initial steps, having worked with DC Greens (a GusNIP PPR project grantee) to host DCCK's Store Navigators for networking and training opportunities that brought together DC Greens' Community Leadership Initiative participants and our Store Navigators for a 4-part series in the spring and summer of 2024. We also convened similar Navigator type positions from local peer organizations including FRESHFARM and the Capital Area Food Bank, as well as positions working with DC agencies like DC Health and the Department of Energy and Environment for a larger gathering on September 25 These individuals serve to connect their neighbors to healthy food and resources in their communities, and we anticipate building on the first meeting to continue the partnership in the coming year. While demand for produce and use of produce incentives grew over our baseline in this first year of the grant, we had reports from the firms we partner with, particularly the smaller firms, of challenges due to customers wanting to purchase produce items but not wanting or being able to meet our current project threshold of a $5 SNAP purchase (which includes at least one GusNIP qualifying fruit or vegetable item). In response to this, we have, after discussion with our NIFA grant officers, proposed a program modification to shift to an even more robust produce-for-produce model, in which the elective purchase of any one (1) fresh or frozen GusNIP qualifying fruit or vegetable regardless of the SNAP transaction size will trigger a $5 incentive coupon, redeemable for up to $5 worth of resh or frozen GusNIP qualifying fruits and/or vegetables. We anticipate this program modification, once (and if) we are able to implement it with NIFA approval, will enable customers with smaller SNAP allotments will be more motivated to purchase produce for the incentive, while other participants would not need to add additional items (sometimes unhealthy items such as chips or cookies) to be eligible for the produce incentive. By lowering the barriers to program participation, we aim to test the impact of this alternative structure in increasing produce purchase and consumption among SNAP customers who face budgetary constraints and may not yet demonstrate the same regularity in health-seeking behaviors.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In the first year of our GusNIP Large-scale project, DC Central Kitchen (DCCK) focused on laying the groundwork to expand our existing "SNAP Match" program that started under prior GusNIP and FINI projects into a true state-wide program, reaching populations in low-income, low-food-access (LILA) neighborhoods throughout DC. Towards Goal 1: we expanded access to produce incentives through a combination of efforts, including adding two stores to the SNAP match network (detailed under goal two progress), conducting comprehensive marketing and engagement campaigns. We also onboarded new stores into the Healthy Corners program, which a store must join before becoming a SNAP Match participant; we currently have 57 Healthy Corner Store locations, up from 53 a year ago, including stores that have joined with a specific interest in becoming SNAP Match retailers. Lastly, we identified SNAP Match retailers who had strong potential for growth and engaged owners and clerks in training to refresh their understanding or train new clerks on the program. Two stores who had been technically onboarded to SNAP Match previously but were slow to fully implement the program due to staffing concerns began actively issuing and redeeming coupons last year, and others stores saw strong increases in sales thanks to comprehensive training from DCCK staff to their clerks and managers. As a result, SNAP match participating stores issued 45,993 coupons in total during the reporting year, an increase of 38.8% over 2023, the final year of our prior GusNIP standard project. The coupon redemption rate was 93.7%, reflecting strong customer familiarity and loyalty to the program. The program also reached an estimated 20,675 unique customers. This is a substantial increase over prior years (in which we reached an estimated 15,000 unique customers), however, due to a change in methodology for calculating the unique customers due to FNS requirements to avoid collecting partial EBT numbers of customers, we are not able to make a precise year-over-year comparison. Towards goal 2, we onboarded two SNAP Match retailers to the Healthy Corners program, A&S Grocery (Ward 7) and Fresh Food Factory (Ward 8), both located in LILA Census tracts. We now have 34 stores participating in SNAP Match, making progress towards our goal of 38-40 SNAP Match locations by the end of the grant term. Our third goal, aligned with our efforts to increase consumption of local products, was to grow the number of products available to retailers throughout the growing year, and promote those products to consumers. To understand the current state of consumer preferences, we included a question in our annual consumer survey (conducted outside of the standard GusNIP evaluation) and found that 66% (59) of respondents said it is important that their fruits and vegetables come from local farms, which affirmed our goal and gave us an opportunity to provide a flyer that offered information on our local farm partners. We identified additional produce items that could be sourced locally, including green peppers (whole and for our cut-pepper and onion product) tomatillos, watermelon for our popular cut-watermelon product, and cantaloupe for cut-mixed fruit, to ensure that retailers could order a variety of fruits and vegetables year-round. We increased store staff awareness of local products available by marking local items on the order form and on store staff price sheets. We developed marketing materials, including advertisements, in-store signage such a shelf talkers, and product labels, that highlighted local items. Lastly, towards goal 4, we continued to refine the Healthy Corners app, building out the recipe section with content produced by UDC SNAP-Ed, along with DCCK recipes. Approximately 500 new customers downloaded the Healthy Corners app during the grant period. The Healthy Corners app was promoted in dozens of community events as well as partnerships with local influencers (e.g. Congress Heights on the Rise social media accounts) and recognized community papers (e.g. Washington Informer).

Publications