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

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience reached for this grant period consisted of SNAP shoppers in both new and existing counties across NYS regarding the implementation of Double Up Food Bucks. Over the course of the reporting period, we have grown to include 41 new markets (combined Farm Direct and Brick & Mortar) across 8 new counties in the state. Double Up Food Bucks now operates in 35 counties across the state. These markets and counties represent a significant growth in program reach and impact on SNAP shoppers in the state. New Counties this reporting period Individuals using SNAP Chemung 14,479 Chenango 6,757 Fulton 8,305 Herkimer 9,077 Jefferson 14,829 Otsego 6,614 Putnam 2,700 Tompkins 7,713 (Information gathered from May 2024 SNAP Usage Data from New York Office of Temporary Disability and Assistance:https://otda.ny.gov/resources/caseload/) Changes/Problems:The Credible 50% off model represents a significant change in our operations, as up to this point, Double Up Food Bucks New York has operated as strictly an earn and redeem incentive program. Many things contributed to the reason for this offering as a solution to the sites we work with that do not have sophisticated point of sale technology systems. These reasons include: Affordability: the app has a very approachable cost structure, making it a sustainable solution to operate financially Ease of use: the app is very easy to use for vendors and the 50% instant discount model is very easy to understand for customers Record Keeping and Reporting: Can be centrally managed by program staff to see all transactions in real-time. Vendors and DUFB Program staff have access to back-end data for verifications and troubleshooting and generated reports capture all necessary GusNIP data tracking requirements Lack of other affordable technology options: Although some other technology options do exist, many of them were not affordable in the long run Due to Credibles being a significant change, we ensured that we had the approval of NIFA prior to moving forward with this plan. We received the approval to use this technology on 06/11/2024 after submitting a letter outlining our reasoning, much of which is captured in this report. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training: All new sites were trained via a meeting with F&FN program staff prior to launching the program. F&FN staff also attend the launch of the program to provide hands-on training and support where necessary. Training involves: "What is Double Up Food Bucks" (staff presentations and/or direct manager training) Technology training for Fresh Incentives if necessary In-store technology and processes led by site management, if necessary Metrics to be tracked and how to report, how reimbursement work/payment cadence, etc. DUFB Program Staff have also worked closely with our large Brick & Mortar partners to build training into training and onboarding protocols those stores use when hiring new employees. This ensures and all employees who are new to the store are trained adequately regarding how the program works and how to communicate the program to SNAP shoppers. "Cashier Alerts" have been created by larger chain stores in tandem with DUFB program staff and are sent out prior to any launches. All farmers market managers are mandated to attend a season kick-off training/webinar. Topics covered include: "How Double Up Food Bucks works at Farmers Markets" Updates to the program (reporting, communications, technology options, etc) Discussion groups to share best practices, issues and solutions, and general networking Website Resource Portal Review: resources such as spreadsheets for logging and tracking SNAP customers, sales, and other metrics are all provided as templates for market managers to use. Links to training materials, signage, and additional information is also provided via the Market managers portal via the Double Up Food Bucks New York website Market Manager Portal on the Double Up Food Bucks New York website. CSA Farms All CSA Managers were trained in a one-on-one basis around how to use reporting and tracking sheets, forms that need filled out and other operational procedures DUFB also partnered with NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) to do a presentation about how Double Up Food Bucks works and how to sign up for the program Conferences: Field & Fork Network has attended numerous conferences, including the EBT Integration conference held in Boston. Field & Fork Network also presented on DUFB at the Food Pantries of the Capital District conference, and event attended by food access and food systems partners from across the state. The presentation was focused on the reach and impacts of nutrition incentive programs, and Double Up Food Bucks specifically. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Surveys: Surveys are currently being collected. Our goal is to conduct 200 surveys. Surveys were amended to include specific questions around interoperability and sent to strategically determined locations. These areas include counties such as Columbia County, where 4 separate locations all utlize the loyalty card technology and are in proximity to each other. Other areas of loyalty card density include Buffalo and Syracuse. We have also partnered with the New York State Department of Health CDC State Physical and Nutrition project. This project aims to enhance and expand both Produce Prescription and Nutrition Incentive programs. As such, we have completed a thorough Landscape Assessment mapping the presence, impacts, barriers, and solutions of both nutrition incentive and produce prescription projects across the state. It is our intent to publish this report and host webinars to disseminate the findings. Action Research Collaborative (ARC) has presented their grocery research findings, entitled "Barriers and Motivators for Stakeholders Implementing Grocery Store Fruit and Vegetable Incentive Programs," via a poster presentation at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) in Knoxville, TN. ARC also presented their research findings regarding nutrition incentives and CSAs at conferences. The research is titled "Qualitative Interviews with Community Supported Agriculture Staff." What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the upcoming reporting period, our primary goal will be to expand our network of grocery stores, with a particular emphasis on entering new counties. We have been working diligently to build our pipeline of prospective grocery store partners. The introduction of new, user-friendly point-of-sale solutions is significantly enhancing the scalability of the Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) program. Among these advancements is a partnership with Catalina Coupon Company, which is helping us extend our reach within a major grocery chain in New York State. Additionally, we are collaborating with point-of-sale companies like RORC/DUMAC, which has been actively promoting the program to its extensive network of brick-and-mortar clients throughout the state. These efforts are paving the way for new opportunities and supporting the continued growth of DUFB. We will also be looking to add a 50% off discount model to our array of current technology solutions via Credibles.This solution will be especially effective for our smaller bodegas, corner stores, and farm stands, as it is cost effective and very easy to use for the vendor and the customer. As we continue to grow, we are also focused on ensuring we maintain contact with Double Up Food Bucks customers. We are doing this by revamping our website, increasing our social media presence, hiring Americorps VISTAs for outreach, and creating robust mailing lists to ensure SNAP shoppers are as informed as possible about the Double Up Food Bucks program. After the CSA season is over, we will take a step back to review our processes and speak to our vendors to see where we can make further efficiencies. We will also be working to actively recruit more CSAs into the program. We will be working closely with Forage, GrownBy, and some others to initiate DUFB online. These conversations are already taking place, and we are hopeful that we will have concrete action items on which to act in the upcoming year. We do not foresee any major issues that will keep us from exceeding our goals. However, we have been slightly delayed from expanding as quickly as we would like due to delays in technology development and delays in coordination with key integration partners. For example, we have been working with a cooperative market in northern New York that cannot create an internal loyalty system until their computers are upgraded. This upgrade has taken several months to accomplish and has delayed our initial launch schedule. These issues do come up regularly and work consistently to facilitate and aid in communications that help move the process along. One challenge we're encountering is the rising cost of using EPIC Technology's Fresh Incentives Loyalty Card program. As our program expands, the expenses associated with maintaining this loyalty card technology have become unsustainable. To address this, we've developed a plan to gradually shift away from covering the full cost of this technology. While some of our larger sites will continue using the Fresh Incentives Card, the cost will now be the responsibility of the individual sites. We're working closely with EPIC to ensure that the pricing is transparent and manageable for these sites. Recognizing that many smaller sites may not be able to afford this, we explored alternative solutions. Our Double Up Food Bucks team consulted with other GusNIP nutrition incentive programs and our own sites, and conducted extensive research on cost-effective technology options. Among the limited options that met our criteria, Credibles--a 50% off instant discount model available through a simple app--stood out. We plan to transition to the Credibles discount solution in September 2024. We acknowledge that this represents a significant shift in our operations, and further details are provided in the next section of this report.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1) DUFBNY Automatic Enrollment at Grocery Stores Via Catalina Marketing Field & Fork Network launched the automated Catalina coupon solution with two Tops Friendly Marketslocations (Buffalo and Niagara Falls). Customers who use SNAP at these locations will receive a coupon for their purchase of eligible items as a dollar-for-dollar match, up to 5 dollars per day. There is no sign up required at these locations since the solution recognizes and prints the coupons based on SNAP tender type and eligible purchase items. As such, we've seen the numbers of redemptions continue to grow. The industry standard for coupon redemptions is between 5% - 10%, but we have seen the DUFBNY coupon grow to be redeemed at 25% at the Buffalo location, and 37% at the Niagara Falls location after a little over a year. We have also added several new stores using DUMAC/RORC's automated coupon solution, which works in a very similar fashion to the Tops Catalina Solution. This solution also recognizes, and triggers based on SNAP tender type. We are currently operating this solution at 5 separate locations that were all launched during this reporting period. Additionally, we have struck up a partnership with Save-a-lot and ACME Markets (part of Albertsons). We launched at one Save-A-Lot location and three ACME Markets locations, all running SNAP triggered coupon solutions. ACME does require that participants have a loyalty card however. The new technology at Save-A-Lot represents the first time nationally this new version of the software has been created to seamlessly operate with DUFB. Since the inception of these programs, there have beenover 20,000 Double Up transactions using coupon solutions across these 11 store locations.[JM1] This solution will continue to grow and scale. We are currently working with Tops on a broad launch strategy that will incorporate another 10-15 store locations, all of which will use the Catalina coupon solution. This strategy will consider multiple store locations within specific regions, as well as counties in which Double Up Food Bucks does not currently operate. We will also be growing our presence in locations running DUMAC/RORC automated solutions, including partnerships with local chains such as Grand Union (ten locations total) and Dash's (three locations total, one of which we are currently in). Goal 2) DUFBNY Online for SNAP Online Shoppers We have not increased our presence online during this grant reporting period, but we are hopeful that we will be able to make larger strides towards accomplishing this goal in the next reporting period. We are in conversations with Grown By, a statewide online platform that connects farmers to customers. They recently received their SNAP online authorization, and we will be working with them to sign up farmers to operate DUFB. We continue to speak with Forage about their next steps. They are creating solutions that will allow DUFB and other nutrition incentives to run on their payment processing platform as a plug and play option for those using their services. We continue to push Instacart to create these solutions since many of our larger stores use their services. We have had several meetings with them, but nothing concrete has developed just yet. As our presence in larger grocery chains like Tops Friendly Markets grows, we are hopeful that the businesses and corporations themselves can be advocates for the creation of online solutions that work with nutrition incentives. Goal 3) DUFBNY via Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Double Up Food Bucks piloted a CSA program with West Side Tilth during the Summer of 2023. Although the farm only had one SNAP DUFB customer for that period, they were able to take the lessons learned and enhance our processes and communication materials for the 2024 CSA season. We now have 7 CSAs operating this year across 7 counties, with over 70 CSA SNAP/DUFB users and growing. Due to cost barriers associated with the loyalty card technology, we have decided to create an easy and straightforward tracking sheet that is filled out by the CSA managers. This was created after having several meetings with other GusNIP practitioners and learning their best practices for running an efficient and accurate CSA tracking and reporting system. The system is working well for the farms and for our program management and reporting needs. Goal 4) Expand Current DUFBNY Implementation With the addition of 8 new counties this reporting period, we are now operating in 35 counties across New York State. However, we did see a reduction in 3 counties this year as a few farmers markets opted not to participate in the Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) program. These markets chose to join New York State's "Fresh Connect" program instead. Fresh Connect operates similarly to DUFB by matching SNAP dollars, but it is exclusively for farmers markets and offers a higher daily cap of $50 per SNAP shopper, compared to DUFB's $20 daily cap.Despite these changes, DUFB's presence at farmers markets continues to grow annually. With our new partnerships with grocery chains and the scalable implementation of DUFB at these locations, we remain committed to expanding the program into new counties and meeting the increasing demand in our current areas of operation. We currently have a store waiting list that continues to grow quickly due to word of mouth and the advent of strong partnerships across the state with organizations such as the American Heart Association, United Way, and numerous statewide coalitions of which we are a part. Various tech companies, such as DUMAC continue to speak about DUFB to their store customers, further enhancing our reach and ensuring stores continue to apply for the DUFB program. Although we did lose 3 farmers markets this season, we gained 7 new Farmers Markets, 3 new mobile markets, and 7 new farm stands during this reporting period.

Publications