Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This GusNIP Nutrition Incentive grant proposal outlines a project led by DYU is aimed at enhancing the accessibility and affordability of healthy, local produce in Buffalo and surrounding Erie County communities, while simultaneously expanding the market for local food producers. The project's primary focus is to address food insecurity and improve health outcomes by encouraging the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables among low-income residents, particularly SNAP participants.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
90%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
The key goals and intended outcomes of the project are as follows:1. Increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables in Erie County, NY.2. Reduce individual and household food insecurity among Erie County residents.3. Improve overall health outcomes of Erie County residents through increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.The project aligns with the purpose and priorities of the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) by maximizing the use of funds for direct incentives to SNAP participants, utilizing direct-to-consumer marketing strategies, and building upon DYU's successful track record in implementing nutrition incentive programs. The project also aims to serve underrepresented communities, including Black/African Americans and those living below the Federal poverty line, by facilitating access to fresh produce and supporting small food retailers in accepting SNAP payments. Overall, the project seeks to promote food security, improve dietary habits, and enhance the local food system in Erie County, NY, through collaborative efforts involving multiple stakeholders and community-based organizations. Objectives follow each re-stated goal below and are labled accordinging to align and clarify the project's activies.Goal 1: Increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables in Erie County, NY.1.1 Increase point-of-sale (POS) opportunities for fresh food and vegetables among food retailers and wholesalers in Erie County.1.2 Provide nutrition incentives to SNAP beneficiaries to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables among SNAP beneficiaries in Erie County.Goal 2: Reduce individual and household food insecurity among Erie County residents.2.1 Reach at least 1,500 SNAP beneficiaries by providing 1:1 matching Nutrition Incentives at the point of sale (POS).2.2 Increase the accessibility and affordability of locally produced fresh fruits and veggies among low-income consumers eligible for SNAP by providing Nutrition Incentives redeemable at participating partner retailers (farmers markets, co-ops, etc.) on a 1:1 basis in $5 increments (up to $500 per participant per year).Goal 3: Improve overall health outcomes of Erie County residents through increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.3.1 Increase project participant familiarity with incorporating fresh fruits and vegetables intotheir diets through various nutrition education activities.3.2 Hold at least two (2) cooking classes per month at local community organizations, including at DYU's Hub D'Lish Kitchen, resulting in at least 48 cooking classes over the two-year project performance period. With approximately 10 participants per class, this will enable the project team to reach at least 250 SNAP beneficiaries per year (500 total).3.3 At least 75% of program participants throughout the project will increase their knowledge of chronic disease prevention and reduction measures, as measured by program surveys at the end of each single cooking class and multi-session nutrition education series.
Project Methods
Efforts:This project will use an integrated approach to improve food access and health in the Buffalo and surrounding Erie County communities to improve markets for local food producers. Through direct-to-consumer marketing of incentives, participants will purchase eligible fresh, whole, or cut fruits and vegetables and then enroll in cooking classes or other nutrition education opportunities of their choice. Thiscollaborative initiative is focused on supporting citizens participating in SNAP living in Buffalo who purchase foods from local farmers' markets and partnering retailers.This project has been carefully designed so that the provided nutrition incentives earned through participation in cooking classes or other nutrition education classes may be used only to purchase fruits or vegetables, with as many of those opportunities being on-site and co-located with the education opportunities as possible.Th?is project will also serve underrepresented communities in Erie County, including Black/African Americans and communities with residents predominately living under the Federal poverty line that have been historically disadvantaged and excluded from participation in the local food system. For vendors and retailers who do not currently have the capabilities to accept SNAP, DYU will act as a pass-through entity to support these organizations that otherwise wouldn't be able to accept SNAP by accepting non-cash payments on their behalf. Many larger grocers can partner with national meal delivery services like InstaCart or DoorDash, which are equipped to accept SNAP, whereas many smaller grocers cannot. This activity will enable the DYU to offer expanded supplemental services, such as online ordering, in high-need communities. The project team will track this activity closely to see if it contributes to the overall understanding of how SNAP participants can best increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables by leveraging the convenience of online ordering in communities that do not have reliable access to transportation.Evaluation:The Co-Project Directors andExternal Evaluator will continuously evaluate this project throughout the two-year project period, utilizing both formative and summative evaluation methods. The Co-Project Directors will complete a monthly report to all partner organizations summarizing program performance utilizing the proposed measures. The partners will review these measures against established benchmarks to determine changes the data might indicate. The evaluation plan is designed to ensure project activities are on track to achieve stated outcomes while identifying challenges in strategies and activities in near real-time. Monitoring short-term indicators will identify any process issues that could cause a failure to achieve desired results. This formative evaluation will include an assessment of initial and ongoing planning activities, provide new and potentially unanticipated insights into improving the project's outcomes, and involve the review of progress by the lead organization and the network governance committee. The formative evaluation will assess whether GusNIP project activities were completed within the approved time frames. DYU's GusNIP project has goals that, when achieved, will form the basis of a sustainable and effective intra-agency network with tangible and sustainable food access, nutrition, and overall health outcomes for the target population. Performance on project goals will be measured with long-term outcome indicators. These long-term, summative outcome indicators will be tracked quarterly. The purpose of the summative evaluation is to determine whether the project objectives for the GusNIP project were met. DYU will contract with an External Evaluator to help evaluate this project. The External Evaluator will provide ongoing management of the external evaluation of the GusNIP project according to the goals and outcomes of this grant.?To evaluate the effectiveness of this project, DYU and its partners will use qualitative and quantitative data, as well as process and outcome measurements. The Co-Project Directors will be responsible for tracking, monitoring, and documenting progress on all project outputs and outcomes and providing all required reports to the NTAE Center at least annually. This will include collecting core retailer- and participant-level metrics, cooperating with, and contributing core data to the NTAE Center as required. The evaluation plan is designed to ensure that project activities are on track to achieve stated outcomes and identify challenges in strategies and activities in near real-time (formative and summative evaluation). Monitoring short-term indicators (formative) will identify any process issues that could cause a failure to achieve desired results. Together, DYU and its partner organizations will create a set of short-term tests of change based on quality improvement processes to assess the effects of their work in real time as they implement strategies. Short-term, quick-turnaroundassessment will allow the group to determine quickly if a strategy needs refinement and adjust accordingly. In the long term, DYU and its partners will identify measures and methodologies for evaluating project-specific outcome measures to evaluate all stakeholder experiences, integration levels, and the delivery of services and nutrition incentives. After the two-year project period, DYU will review available quantitative data points and provide a summary of findings to project partners, USDA/NIFA, the NTAE Center, and members of the Erie County Community.The project team will also leverage the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model for program evaluation. PDSA is an iterative, four-stage problem-solving model used to improve a process or carry out change. Through these PDSA cycles, DYU will implement various data-driven and innovative interventions to improve goals and objectives, increasing access to and purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables and improving overall project-specific measures outlined above. In applying PDSA cycles throughout the two-year project performance period, the project team will contemplate the following key questions: 1) What are we trying to accomplish? 2) How will we know that a change is an improvement? 3) What were the results? 4) What changes can we make that will result in an improvement?