Non Technical Summary
City Green's NJ Statewide Good Food Bucks SNAP Nutrition Incentive Program, in operation since 2011, currently offers nutrition incentives reaching over 15,000 NJ-SNAP beneficiaries each year, who redeem an average of $175,000 in SNAP incentives annually. The program is operated out of 40+ farmers market and grocery store partners across 20 New Jersey counties. City Green's Large Scale GusNIP (FLSP) project aims to increase the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables by SNAP participants by providing nutrition incentives at the point of purchase. Our proposed project will build on City Green's 13+ years of successful incentive program implementation and scaling in New Jersey. We will: deepen the program's reach in New Jersey's food desert communities by adding additional farm and retail partners; improve customer experience, nutrition education, and program usage through targeted marketing and enhanced point of sale technologies; and poise nutrition incentives for long-term sustainability in New Jersey through research exploration of an electronic EBT-integration program model in partnership with the Department of Human Services. Through these efforts, more New Jerseyans in every county will have increased access to healthy fresh fruits and vegetables resulting in improved health outcomes for individuals and communities, farmers and grocers will earn additional income, and New Jersey's food system will be more equitable and resilient.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
704	6099	1010	100%

Knowledge Area
704 - Nutrition and Hunger in the Population;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;

Goals / Objectives
Goal 1: Expand the number of GFB fresh food retail sites and the number of GFB customers in NJ's food desert communitiesObjective: 192,000 SNAP participants purchase $2,270,000 GusNIP-qualifying fresh fruits & vegetables using point-of-purchase nutrition incentives at 85 retailers across every NJ county, focusing on 15 new food desert communities by August 2027.Outcome: 192,000 individuals over 3 years, or 64,000 SNAP participants per year, have increased access to nutritious fresh food, evidenced by increased availability of the GFB program and upward trending redemption rates.Goal 2: Enhance and improve customer experience and program engagementObjective: By 2027, 85 farm-direct and brick-and-mortar retail sites, (100% of retail partners) utilize GFB marketing collateral tailored to their program and customer base, receive 2 hours of staff training within 2 weeks of program launch, and integrate updated POS technology to allow online GFB operations and data collection. City Green will engage customers through statewide marketing/outreach campaign including grassroots outreach, nutrition education, digital marketing strategies, and community events.Outcome: 85 GFB farm-direct and brick-and-mortar retailers report increase in program uptake year over year and 450 customers self-report increased understanding of how and where to access GFB on customer surveys.Goal 3: Improve the efficiency of nutrition incentive technologies in New Jersey in partnership with New Jersey Department of Human ServicesObjective: In collaboration with NJ DHS, assess the feasibility of integrating electronic nutrition incentives with NJ EBT cards as a pillar of sustaining GFB long-term by attending EBT integration conferences, learning best practices and strategies from other states, and conducting research with EBT Technology companies.Outcome: NJ is poised to adopt a blueprint for EBT Integration in support of efficient EBT/incentive technologies so the GFB Program can be sustained long-term by the state.

Project Methods
EFFORTS:The Good Food Bucks program uses best practices and proven strategies based on our10+ years of operations and recommendations from the Nutrition Incentive Hub to:Recruit, train, reimburse, and provide ongoing support to a variety of fresh food retailers (farms, farmers markets, CSAs, grocery stores) to implement SNAP nutrition incentives, thereby increasing availability of nutrition incentives in New JerseyDesign and disseminate outreach and marketing plans to connect shoppers using SNAP with retailers where the Good Food Bucks program is offered, thereby increasing program usageCollaborate with state and county agencies, as well as a wide variety of food systems partners, to make Good Food Buck SNAP nutrition incentivesmore efficient and accessibleContribute to resiliency and cohesiveness of New Jersey's food system by connecting farmers, fresh food retailers, consumers of all income levels, and food system stakeholdersGood Food Bucks embodies the purpose and priorities of the GusNIP Program and is aligned with Strategic Goal 4 of the USDA 2022-2026 Strategic Plan: Make Safe, Nutritious Food Available to All Americans. The program directly increases food security through assistance and access to nutritious and affordable food, (Objective 4.1 from the USDA Strategic Plan) since it uses technologies to increase participant access to SNAP benefits, and aligns benefits with latest science to improve nutrition security by providing financial incentives for healthy food options to households on fixed incomes.The project also encourages healthy dietary choices through data-driven, flexible, customer-focused approaches (Objective 4.2 from the USDA Strategic Plan). City Green works with grocery retailers who offer online SNAP shopping options; supports farmers and markets in adopting SNAP-authorized ecommerce platforms such as GrownBy and Local Food Marketplace; will work towards developing a blueprint for statewide EBT-incentive integration in partnership with NJ DHS; offers GFB at a variety of retailer types and locations with varying operational hours; and adapts marketing material messaging and languages to fit customer demographics at each GFB site.EVALUATION:City Green will continue the process, outcome, and impact evaluation that has been successfully implemented during our 2021 Standard Scale GusNIP award. City Green will work with Dr. Julie Rosenthal fromWilliam Paterson University as our project's evaluator/PI to conduct program evals with supportfrom NTAE's Research Advisor team.Core Firm Level Metrics Collected via Monthly Firm Reports: Core metrics include: Total # of SNAP transactions / shoppers, # of unique SNAP transactions /shoppers, dollars of SNAP issued/redeemed, dollars of GFB incentives issued/redeemed, # and types of retailers, total # of days each firm operated the incentive project during reporting month, hours that incentives were available. Core metrics are collected by market or store managers. CG provides data collection training during mandatory intro training sessions. Metrics are collected through various NTAE-approved tools; is submitted monthly; cleaned and organized by GFB Manager; transferred to the "NI Firm Monthly Upload" at the NIH portal; & uploaded quarterly for aggregation/analysis.Core Participant Level Metrics/Outcome Assessment Collected via Program Participant Surveys and Focus Groups: A minimum of 150 GFB program participant surveys will be collected annually, for a total of 450 surveys. Participants will be compensated for their time for submitting a survey. In Year 2, our evaluator/PI will conduct focus groups with GFB program participants for user feedback. Focus group participants will be recruited through our "Lead User" model described in the Project Leadership section of this narrative, and will be compensated at $100 for their time (outlined in budget justification). Results of the focus group study will be made available through a report in Year 3.CG surveys 1) follow the format developed by the NTAE and protocol of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at William Paterson University; 2) are administered either orally, via Qualtrics, or in paper format (in-person surveys are conducted by staff certified in CITI and manually entered to Qualtrics later); 3) are collected June - October at farm-direct firms and year-round at brick-and-mortar firms via in-person paper surveys or via Qualtrics. Survey participants are identified at point of sale sites via flyers (paper and digital), word of mouth, and referral. Survey participation is voluntary & optional and does not impact NIP eligibility. No personal identifiable information will be collected.Process Evaluation via Partner Firm Surveys and Interviews: Partner Firms will submit Google Form mid-season and end-of-season surveys and/or interviews to assess their experiences, feedback, success, challenges, and suggestions for improvement for GFB. Surveys are distributed via email, and phone interviews will be conducted by CITI certified staff or by an external evaluator. Process eval results refine GFB design and improve technical assistance provided by CG.Comparative Analysis: CG provides unified training and NJ-specific marketing collateral to all programs so that individuals tasked with implementing GFB receive identical messaging. Multi-lingual marketing materials (Spanish, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Polish) ensure that the program is explained consistently. The evaluation team compares the programs to one another for indicators of what, where, and when GFB works best. Results have been integrated into annual longitudinal analysis to fine tune the program over 10+ years.