Progress 09/01/24 to 04/25/25

Outputs
Target Audience:Through this project, Produce Perks Midwest (PPM) served a primary audience of Ohio SNAP recipients through Produce Perks, Ohio's nutrition incentive program. Produce Perks offers a dollar-for-dollar match on SNAP benefits, which can be used to purchase fruits and vegetables. The program makes fresh produce more affordable for SNAP participants, stretching grocery budgets and empowering participants to buy and consume healthier food options. Although this project was terminated by the USDA 16 months early for "taking part in DEI initiatives," the program had significant impact on low-income consumers, small-market retailers and farmers throughout Ohio. This project funded $91,920 in fruit and vegetable purchases by SNAP shoppers at 11 sites, but had the project continued, the work would have driven and increased produce sales at over 150 farmers' markets and Ohio owned grocery stores within the first year. These sites would have benefited from increased program utilization, purchasing of locally grown produce, and growing the customer base among Ohio-owned small businesses. These sites would have also benefited from technical support, and information and resource sharing provided through the project. Furthermore, this program would have advanced current initiatives and priorities identified with the current administration's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report and recommendations; expanding healthy food access to low-income Americans while simultaneously improving health outcomes and strengthening local economies.Unfortunately, these outcomes will not be realized, further perpetuating America's chronic health conditions and exacerbating the economic challenges of American farmers and businesses. Changes/Problems:This project was terminated early by the USDA for "taking part in DEI initiatives." As such, PPM was not/will not be able to reach the goals of the project, further perpetuating America's chronic health conditions and exacerbating the economic challenges of American farmers and businesses. . This decision impacted many beneficiaries, including: Farmers' markets and Ohio owned grocery stores that intended to start offering the SNAP-matching program this year, but could not be onboarded due to funds being withdrawn; notably rural regions of Ohio. Existing sites/farmers/grocers that could not benefit from increased marketing and outreach activities and technical support due to funds being withdrawn. Tens of thousands of SNAP recipients who may lose access to the program altogether due to funds being withdrawn. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?PPM hosted two training opportunities for farmers' market managers participating in the Produce Perks program - an end of season meeting in November 2024 and a season kick-off meeting in March 2025.These sessions provided farmers' market managers with training on data collection, program policies, strategies, and updates. In addition, PPM hosted two cohort training courses in April 2025 for new farmers' market managers participating in the Produce Perks program.These cohort trainings provided a full review of program operations and reporting to ensure new sites operate the program properly. PPM gave two presentations at the Ohio Farmers' Market Network's annual conference in March 2025. One presentation provided general information about Ohio's SNAP-matching nutrition incentive program; the other provided an interactive opportunity for conference goers to learn about community engagement strategies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This project was terminated early by the USDA for "taking part in DEI initiatives" prior to PPM's ability to collect and disseminate any results to communities of interest. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? While this project was terminated early by the USDA for "taking part in DEI initiatives," in the 8 months the award was active, PPM laid the groundwork for achieving goals and objectives. Through this project, PPM hoped to address three barriers with Ohio's SNAP-matching nutrition incentive programming, Produce Perks: 1) Significant disparity in program usage among locations, resulting in some communities experiencing greater benefit than others; 2) A lack of diversity among owners, operators, and farmers at participating locations, resulting in low impact in high need communities (notably rural communities throughout Ohio); and 3) Limitations in Ohio's current nutrition incentive program models and state-agency infrastructure exposed by the COVID pandemic, resulting in high administrative burden and lack of coordination and shared vision among statewide food safety net programs. Due to the project being terminated 16 months early, PPM did not achieve full outcomes or measurable changes in these areas, but did diligently complete the following work towards completing objectives to reach our goals: Goal 1: Develop community engagement practices tonurture lasting, authentic community relationships and increase beneficiary satisfaction. Objective 1.1:Establisha diverse Community Advisory Group. Recruited 8 members, comprised of diverse community members from across the state of Ohio. This group was incredibly impactful in communicating the lived experience of program participation in the Produce Perks program. Moving forward, PPM will seek to keep a Community Advisory Group convened. Convened group for bi-monthly meetings (4). Drafted facilitation guidelines. Objective 1.2: Conduct and apply feedback from 350 SNAP consumer interviews. Recruited Ohio State University researcher and OHNIN member to contribute to development of qualitative interview questions. Submitted Institutional Review Board application. Goal 2: Equitably deepen impact within underserved communities and underutilized sites to reach$2,700,000 in fruit and vegetable purchases. Objective 2.1: Develop and deliver a customized Technical Assistance (TA) Steps-To-Success Framework to increase PP sales by 50% at Opportunity Sites. Contracted with Farmers Market Coalition and Ohio Farmers Market Network to develop the framework. Held 5 monthly project meetings. Developed a site assessment tool to build site characteristics of most successful sites. Objective 2.2:Increase number of incentive transactions by 20% and overall redemption rate by 45% through marketing best practices and piloting 5 community informed outreach plans. Created print outreach materials in 12 languages (materials were planned for print and distribution, but disrupted by project termination) Maintained an online site locator tool. Designed social media campaigns using retargeting techniques (ads were set to launch, but disrupted by project termination). Collaborated with Case Western Reserve University to recruit and train 8 farmers' markets to pilot a customer engagement app. Scheduled and developed content for farmers' market learning communities (learning communities were scheduled, but disrupted by project termination). Planned for and created registration link for 1-1 communications TA. Completed audit of online communications of 50% of Produce Perks sites. Created a marketing best practice checklist for participating sites. Created framework for community informed outreach plans and selected regions of the state for partnership. Goal 3: Increase equity within program impact,with a specific focus on enhancing racial equity and improving access to programming for underserved communities. Objective 3.1: Hold 5 partner meetings to address barriers to site application/participation and revise New Site Application fora moreinclusive andequitablepathway to join Produce Perks. Convened a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group and convened 3 meetings. The group created heat maps of impact by grocery store owner ethnicity layered over food insecurity and racial disparity by Ohio county. Objective 3.2: Implement PPwith at least 15additionalBIPOC-owned sites. Created site a recruitment packet and conducted site onboarding train-the-trainer sessions with project partners in Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio. Identified 3 corner stores for onboarding. Objective 3.3: Use community feedback to recruit 10 new sites in 5 new counties. Identified and recruited 1 site in 1 new county. Identified and recruited 8 new sites in existing counties. Goal 4: Increase OhioNutritionIncentiveNetworkcross-agency collaboration and resource sharing. Objective 4.1: Conduct 24 network meetings, annual 1-on-1 member meetings, and recruit 5 new membersfrom new regions and underrepresented groups. Convened 8 Ohio Nutrition Incentive Network meetings (one per month). Held 3, 1-on-1 member meetings. Recruited 2 new members. Objective 4.2:Recruit state agenciesODJFS/WICandattend 8 quarterly State Nutrition Action Council meetings. Recruited Women Infants and Children to serve on the Network's Incentive Technology Working Group. Joined and attended 2 State Nutrition Action Council Meetings. Objective 4.3:Conduct a needs assessment of PP site capacity to adopt new incentive technology andconvenean Incentive Technology Working Group to create shared goals. Convened an Incentive Technology Working Group, and held 8 monthly meetings. Members included the Ohio Farmers Market Network, Ohio Department of Aging, Women Infants and Children (WIC) Program, Ohio Department of Health, Case Western Reserve University, and program operators. The group shared and evaluated learnings from the Ohio Department of Aging's adoption of digital incentive technology in 2024. The group presented findings at a full OHNIN meeting.

Publications