Recipient Organization
INADVANCE
900 ALICE ST STE 400
OAKLAND,CA 946074481
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Geographically, this project focuses on West Oakland where more than half of residents live in High and Highest Priority Neighborhoods as stated by the City of Oakland Department of Transportation - Racial Equity Team. Many of West Oakland's community members face barriers to accessing produce, including but not limited to; lack of produce availability in food deserts; lack of affordable, quality produce; lack of culturally relevant varieties; lack of cooking facilities, equipment, culinary knowledge and skills; lack of physical abilities and time to prepare foods from raw ingredients. All these factors contribute to Oakland residents' higher risk for diet-related diseases. Black and Latinx children, in particular, have higher than average rates of obesity that can lead to health problems that persist into adulthood. The impact of food desert conditions on the health of children is detrimental anywhere, and the burden is heavily rested upon neighborhoods without a grocery store within walking distance. Through our work at Saba we know that corner stores are assets located within these communities. Store owners in fact want to provide healthier products, but existing hurdles are costly for them to amend single-handedly. Our organization's 120 partner stores have committed to carrying produce if systematic supply chain barriers are addressed. Our mission is to close this gap by offering produce distribution to corner stores and to provide financial assistance for residents to purchase fruits and vegetables. We intend to expand our organization's offering of Fresh5x, our nutrition incentives program, from five to ten corner stores in our produce distribution network. Open to any SNAP recipient 18 years old and older, a participant earns $5 in incentives for every $1 SNAP benefit used to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at the point of sale, thereby multiplying their produce purchasing power by 5x and stretching their monthly SNAP budget further. We will be using a suite of technological platforms to deliver the incentive earning and redeeming electronically and in real time. By the end of the project, we estimate Fresh5x will benefit up to 2,000 previously underserved SNAP households. By having increased dollars to purchase fresh produce, Oakland residents have a healthier alternative to processed foods, which can mitigate or lessen the impacts of diet-related diseases.Making fresh produce available for sale at SNAP recipients' local corner store meets the needs of the majority of SNAP recipients, but not all. Through our survey efforts in our participating Fresh5x corner stores, we learned that specific populations experience the barriers mentioned above more acutely; unsheltered individuals, youth who have not been exposed to fresh produce at home, and working parents who do not have time to prepare meals from scratch for their families. This provides an opportunity for us to innovate solutions that would lower some of these barriers. Through collaboration with community-based organizations that work directly with Oakland's entrepreneurs of color, we intend to test the feasibility of manufacturing two produce packs that consist of raw fruits or vegetables that have been processed and packaged into readily consumable units. The packs will be distributed through our corner stores and available to purchase by all customers. These products serve as a realistic stepping stone to incorporating fresh produce into the diet of a person experiencing barriers to accessing and consuming whole fruits and vegetables.Finally, as an intervention is more sustainable when coupled with reinforcing messages from a trusted source, we intend to recruit a team of five Community Ambassadors drawn from residents of the neighborhoods of participating firms who will conduct peer-to-peer marketing and outreach support to boost the effectiveness of Fresh5x. This hyper-local approach of engagement not only builds value to the program, it also builds a sense of pride and a commitment to collectively increase the overall wellbeing of communities that will last beyond the duration of the project.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Saba's goal is to provide safe, nutritious food to underserved areas of Oakland by bringing together immigrant small businesses, marginalized food entrepreneurs, community-based organizations (CBOs), residents, and technology companies to deepen and expand Fresh5x - our current GusNIP Nutrition Incentive program for SNAP recipients.Our objectives are:1)To expand the operation of Fresh5x fromfive to tenfirms, with an emphasis in corner stores in West Oakland, based upon the firm's SNAP authorization standing, ability to physically reconfigure store layout to stock fresh produce, clerk's capacity, and customer traffic flow. This is estimated to benefit 2,000 SNAP recipientsby increasing access to fresh produce and extending their monthly SNAP budgets; 2)To incubate a framework for sourcing, processing, and distributingtwoready-to-eat produce packs accompanied by recipes and healthy eating tips for sale at our ten Fresh5x firms. We plan to partner with two CBOs to contract three licensed vendors to manufacture the packs.Makingready-to-eat produce packs available for sale will benefit an estimated 4,000 SNAP recipients by supplying immediately consumable fruits and vegetables; 3)To cultivate a team offiveCommunity Ambassadors (CAs) from current Fresh5x participants to act as neighborhood marketing, outreach, education, and evaluation agents for the program. We plan to utilize data from Fresh5x's technology platforms, store owner contacts, and participant narratives to recruit team members, and to collaborate with the CAs on opportunities that can contribute to increased purchase and consumption of fresh produce by SNAP recipients in their communities.Empowering a Community Ambassador team willbenefit the overall wellbeing of communities.With these three additions and enhancements we will increase access and consumption of fresh produce for SNAP recipients located in West Oakland's food desert.
Project Methods
Methods for delivering the NI program to 5 new firms:a) selecting five corner stores out of six potential candidates in West Oakland. Our selection criteria is based on the firm's SNAP authorization standing, readiness for store reconfiguration, clerk's capacity, and customertraffic flow, b) installing and testing technology platforms and terminals. Our program enrollment and incentives mechanism is the PAX A920 terminal, an android interface owned and developed by Epic Solutions. Installation consists of procuring a terminal, programming, and linking it to a banking institution. The PAX terminal requires a SNAP/EBT card to activate an account. Project staff, store owners, and Community Ambassadors will use Epic Solutions' online platform www.freshincentives.com to pull participant data and incentives history and deliver digital marketing campaigns, c) training cashiers on technology, best practices, and quality assurance protocols, and d) launching Fresh5x at five new firms over 18 months.Methods for incubating infrastructure for two ready-to-eat produce packs:a) partner with the Black Cultural Zone CDC and Community Kitchens to identify and facilitate contracting three licensed vendors, b) work with vendors to source, process, and package ready-to-eat produce with recipes and healthy eating tips, c) integrate the packs into Saba's produce distribution service, d) collaborate with participating firms on merchandising and sales strategies.Methods for empowering a team of five Community Ambassadors:a) utilizing data from the Epic platform, store owner contacts, and participant narratives to recruit candidates, b) collaboration between the CAs and staff to design the variety, scope, and frequency of interventions including; flyering, firm and neighborhood nutrition education events, community tabling/presentation, digital media campaigns, and evaluation administration and, c)partnering with the East Oakland Collective and Community Kitchens to provide CAs access to food distribution sites and unsheltered individuals' encampments.Our evaluation efforts will be:Enrolled participants will be invited annually to complete the NTAE core participant data set survey. Participants may only take this survey once per year. Completion of the survey is not required in order to access the participant's incentives. Included in this survey will be project-specific process evaluation questions that are meant to measure successes and challenges during enrollment into the program and usage of its benefits. Surveys will be administered electronically. If a participant is unable to participate due to the lack of access to broadband, an in-person administration can be arranged. As part of the process assessment evaluation, participating firms will be invited to complete a separate electronic survey once during the life of the project. Included in this survey will be project-specific process evaluation questions that are meant to measure successes and challenges during the onboarding, implementation, and operation of the program. Responses from the firm process surveys will be made available to the NTAE.