Progress 06/15/17 to 06/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The Food Basket is targeting low-income SNAP-EBT residents across Hawai'i Island who cannot afford or do not have the means to maintain a healthy consumption of fruits and vegetables. As of July 2021, there were 27,547 SNAP households on Hawai'i Island representing 50,033 individuals. The DA BUX program is especially concerned with serving residents located in its 12 USDA designated low-income/low-access "Food Deserts." These areas cover nearly half of Hawai'i Island's 4,048 square miles. "Food Desserts" are low-income census tracts where at least 500 people or 33% of the population is 1 mile or more away from a full-service supermarket in urban areas or 10 miles from a full service supermarket in rural areas. Changes/Problems:In Feb 2020, NIFA retracted its approval of our incentive mechanism at KTA Super Stores that we had implemented since March 2019. Our original incentive mechanism was a barcoded sticker placed onto SNAP-EBT cards that would trigger a 50% discount at checkout. Pivoting to a new incentive mechanism of a barcoded plastic card, which we branded as a DA BUX Access Card, required a heavy marketing investment and diligent customer service by both KTA and The Food Basket to inform KTA's SNAP customers of the change. At 20.5 cents per Access Card, inclusive of printing, shipping and tax, the Access Cards were a significantly greater cost than the unit cost per sticker at 11 cents. We were able to ensure all current KTA SNAP customers utilizing the original DA BUX sticker were informed of the new incentive mechanism by working with our state SNAP agency, Department of Human Services, to mail each SNAP household on Hawai'i Island an Access Card with an instructional flyer. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The DA BOX CSA coordinators, Alexandra Haban and Zoe Banfield, have wide recognition on Hawai'i Island as leading professionals in the food system development community. Other community partners as well as food retailers have sought out their expertise in farming, produce handling and distribution, and have asked for help in connecting with local farmers. Ms. Haban and Ms. Banfield hosted several video conferences and learning calls to share their knowledge, including with Hawai'i Eco Experiences' CSA, Ho'ola Farms' Farm-to-Car program, distributor Hilo Products, and the Hawai'i Farm Bureau's BRIDGES program. The DA BOX CSA coordinators also provide direct technical assistance to the farmers they source from for our DA BOX CSA. They work with the farmers regularly to ensure that invoices are accurately prepared and submitted in a timely manner, that product is cleaned and packaged to maintain product quality upon delivery, and that appropriate quantities and types of crops are planted to meet the demands of our DA BOX CSA customers. Ms. Haban and Ms. Banfield have welcomed new and beginning farmers to use the DA BOX CSA as a training ground for developing farmers' business practices and operations. Ms. Haban was recently a guest speaker in the Go Farm Hawaii farmer training program, where she invited farmer participants to sell their products to the DA BOX CSA. Once farmers develop an ongoing buyer-seller relationship with the DA BOX CSA, we have seen several examples where our DA BOX CSA purchases have helped our farmers expand: Dimple Cheek Market purchased a new greenhouse and expanded their cold storage; S. Andres Hydroponics expanded production to sell to the larger local grocery chain KTA Super Stores; and Csiszar Olena Farm received their first USDA-NRCS grant to build a high tunnel. In addition to fostering the professional development of our DA BOX CSA farmers, our FINI project provided a professional development opportunity to KTA Super Stores' POS Manager, Conrad Kawabata. Mr. Kawabata is currently participating in the POS Workgroup coordinated by the National Grocers Association and the NTAE Nutrition Incentive Hub. The POS Workgroup is giving him the opportunity to connect and learn from the experiences of other grocery stores across the country implementing SNAP incentive programs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Impact data from our FINI project has been formally shared via video conferencing with various entities helping to advocate for continued DA BUX funding, including the Hawai'i Public Health Institute's Obesity Prevention Task Force, the Ulupono Initiative and Hawai'i Appleseed. These political advocates have testified for DA BUX funding allocations at the State Legislature hearings and in one-on-one meetings with the State legislators, and are now approaching the State Department of Agriculture with requests to allocate funding for DA BUX in the Department's annual base budget. FINI project data was also shared with a team of researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) modeling the impacts of SNAP nutrition incentive programs across the country. CSU estimate that each DA BUX incentive dollar matched on a SNAP dollar to purchase local produce has an economic multiplier of 2.3--that means each incentive dollars used by a SNAP recipient to purchase local produce contributes $2.3 dollars to Hawai'i's economy. Additionally, if DA BUX was further scaled to food retailers statewide, the potential economic contribution would be $14-$22 million in one year. Data sharing on our FINI project with the wider public was very limited due to our sensitivity in safeguarding KTA Super Stores' SNAP sales data from their competitors. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In August 2017, The Food Basket used FINI funds to launch our SNAP incentive program, DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks ("DA BUX" in short form) on Hawai'i Island. FINI funds were only used to incentivize produce grown on Hawai'i Island. During the 4-year project period, we implemented DA BUX through 4 farmers markets, 1 direct farm marketer, 7 grocery stores, and our own CSA program. By June 2019, we discontinued DA BUX at all farmers markets and the direct farm marketer due to their limited cash flow, match funding available to support these retailers, and the retailers' staffing capacity to administer DA BUX. The Food Basket's DA BOX CSA program and the seven KTA Super Stores on Hawai'i Island were the main retailers issuing DA BUX incentives throughout the life of our FINI project. The Food Basket sold 4-week DA BOX CSA subscriptions to SNAP households at a 50% discount. From September 2017-December 2019, the DA BOX CSA retail price was $64 for a 4-week subscription; however, due to increased operational costs, we raised our retail price to $80 in Jan 2021. Advanced payments were accepted to pay for the first two weeks of their subscription, and the SNAP household received the last two weeks for free. Each week the SNAP household received one bag of produce consisting of 5-6 vegetables and 1-2 fruits. The Food Basket remained committed to ensuring our DA BOX CSA continued normal services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic because we saw increased demand for this service. Residents were more inclined to try our DA BOX CSA because it offered a safe alternative for produce purchasing that minimized the risk of COVID-19 exposure, and residents were cooking more at home and had more time to experiment with some of the unfamiliar produce items they would receive with the DA BOX CSA. Due to this demand, the CSA dramatically surpassed Outcomes 1.1 and 1.2. Outcome 1.1: The original Outcome 1.1 was written prematurely based on a $100,000 projection of SNAP sales for 2016. The Food Basket adjusted this outcome to increase SNAP sales 100% from the actual CSA sales in the 12 months prior to launching DA BUX incentives in the DA BOX CSA; during this 12-month baseline period of Sept 2016-Aug 2017, SNAP sales totaled $35,704. Using the adjusted Outcome 1.1, The Food Basket's DA BOX CSA was able to increase SNAP sales in each subsequent year that FINI incentives were offered--69% in year one, 123% in year two, 320% in year three, and 558% in year four. In the fourth year of FINI incentives, from Sept 2020-Aug 2021, our DA BOX CSA sold $234,882 in CSA shares to SNAP customers. Outcome 1.2: Likewise, FINI incentives helped to increase the number of unique SNAP households participating in our DA BOX CSA. While the baseline average of SNAP households was 85, from Sept 2016-2017, our DA BOX CSA increased SNAP household participation in each subsequent year that FINI incentives were offered--6% in year one,45% in year two, 148% in year three, and 229% in year four. In the fourth year of FINI incentives, from Sept 2020-Aug 2021, our DA BOX CSA sold shares to an average of 280 SNAP households per month. KTA Super Stores issued the majority of FINI incentives over several iterations of DA BUX incentive mechanisms. The first incentive mechanism offered an instant 50% rebate on qualifying SNAP produce purchases. KTA required each SNAP customer making a qualifying purchase to swipe their card twice at checkout--once to pay and a second time for the cashier to issue a 50% SNAP refund. This incentive mechanism was very successful because it ensured that 100% of SNAP customers making qualifying purchases were benefiting from DA BUX incentives. The Food Basket needed to receive a USDA-FNS waiver prior to implementing this incentive mechanism. From Jan 2018-Feb 2019, KTA paused DA BUX incentives to upgrade its POS system across its seven stores. The new POS could not be customized to administer the previous 50% rebate incentive mechanism, forcing KTA to develop a new incentive mechanism. In March 2019, KTA re-launched DA BUX as a 50% discount. SNAP customers needed to sign-up for a barcoded DA BUX sticker that was affixed to their SNAP card. The SNAP customer would then have their sticker scanned at checkout to trigger a 50% discount on their qualifying purchase prior to swiping to pay with their SNAP card. In Feb 2020, we were notified by USDA-FNS that we were no longer allowed to affix the stickers onto SNAP cards. In place of stickers, we transitioned to a plastic, credit-card sized DA BUX Access Card using the same barcode. While the Access Card has resulted in an 18% participation rate among SNAP households making qualifying purchases, DA BUX has successfully surpassed Outcomes 2.1 and 2.2. Outcome 2.1: In Jan 2020, we changed the metric used to measure increases in local produce sales (Outcome 2.1). KTA Super Stores now reports the percentage change of the 12-month simple moving average of SNAP sales of qualifying produce items compared to a baseline average from calendar year 2019. We feel this new metric provides stronger evidence of DA BUX impacts. Using this new metric, we saw significant increases in produce sales in each subsequent year. In June 2020, qualifying produce sales at each store on average increased 28% (ranging from 18%-42%); and in June 2021, produce sales on average increased 279% (ranging from 203%-355%). These results far surpass Outcome 2.1 of a 10% increase. Outcome 2.2: In Jan 2020, we also changed the metric used to measure increases in unique SNAP recipients redeeming their SNAP benefits on local produce. Similar to the change made for Outcome 2.1, we asked KTA Super Stores to report the percentage change of the 12-month simple moving average of SNAP households compared to a baseline average from calendar year 2019. Using this new metric, we saw significant increases in unique SNAP households purchasing local produce in each subsequent year. In June 2020, unique SNAP households at each store on average increased 9% (ranging from -10%-22%); and in June 2021, unique SNAP households on average increased 169% (ranging from 114%-196%). These results far surpass Outcome 2.2 of a 25% increase.
Publications
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Progress 06/15/19 to 06/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The Food Basket is targeting low-income SNAP-EBT residents across Hawai'i Island who cannot afford or do not have the means to maintain a healthy consumption of fruits and vegetables. As of July 2020, there were 24,106 SNAP households on Hawaii Island representing 42,374 individuals. The DA BUX program is especially concerned with serving residents located in its 12 USDA designated low-income/low-access "Food Deserts" (USDA Economic Research Service 2017). These areas cover nearly half of Hawai'i Island's 4,048 square miles. "Food Desserts" are census tracts where at least 500 households or 33% of the population is 1 mile or more away from a full-service supermarket in urban areas or 10 miles from a full service supermarket in rural areas. Changes/Problems:In Jan 2020, NIFA retracted its approval of our incentive mechanism at KTA Super Stores that we had implemented since March 2019. Our original incentive mechanism was a barcoded sticker placed onto SNAP-EBT cards that would trigger a 50% discount at checkout. Pivoting to a new incentive mechanism of a barcoded plastic card, which we branded as a DA BUX Access Card, required a heavy marketing investment and diligent customer service by both KTA and The Food Basket to inform KTA's SNAP customers of the change. At 20.5 cents per Access Card, inclusive of printing, shipping and tax, the Access Cards were a significantly greater cost than the unit cost per sticker at 11 cents. We were able to ensure all current KTA SNAP customers utilitzing the original DA BUX sticker were informed of the new incentive mechanism by mailing each SNAP household on Hawaii Islandan Access Card with an instructional flyer. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Food Basket received technical assistance from that National Grocers Association consultant Kate Fitzgerald. Ms. Fitzgerald provided critical guidance in helping The Food Basket choose a new incentive mechanism that could be implemented with KTA Super Stores. In Jan 2020, NIFA withdrew its approval of our discount sticker mechanism, and we needed to quickly decide on a new mechanism based on suggested alternatives Ms. Fitzgerald shared with us that other states were using. On Oct 12, 2019, The Food Basket hosted a Farmer Appreciation Luncheon attended by over 25 Hawaii Island farmers that are selling or donating produce to us. This was our first time hosting an event like this for our farmers. Our main goal was to show the farmers our appreciation for their partnership and to provide a career development opportunity to network as well as learn about resources available to them. We invited outreach staff from organizations such as University of Hawaii at Manoa Cooperative Extension Service, USDA Farm Service Agency, and The Kohala Center to connect with our farmers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Weplan to continue utilizingsocial media advertising and postings targeted to Hawaii Island residentsto inspire SNAP customers to buy more local produce. If we inspire moreSNAP beneficiaries to change their diets and to purchase and eat more local produce, they will be more inclined to seek out financial incentives on local produce and to continue purchasing produce through DA BUX retailers. Changed purchasing and consumption behaviors in SNAP customers has the potential to drawnew loyal customers to KTA Super Stores and increase the number of unqiue SNAP customers shopping in KTA's produce departments. Our current marketing project is aimed at inspiring more residents to cook for themselves and to incorporate more local produce into their diets. With the help of the County of Hawaii Research and Development local food promotion funds, we are creating an online "Recipes" page full ofcooking videos featuring home cookscreating mealswith qualifying DA BUX produce. We are also working to inspire our CSA customers to try new recipes using the produce found in their produce shares. We contracted a website developer to createa new public website for the CSA program that will include a blog full of tips for growing, eating and shopping forlocal produce; and it will also include a library of recipes for our customers to access. The CSA website is scheduled to be completed by Feb 28, 2021.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Year 3, the DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks program continued to market Hawaii Island grown fruits and vegetables to 12 sites within food deserts: Dimple Cheek Market, Eden Roc Park, Hawaiian Acres Community Association, Hawaiian Paradise Park, Kulaimano Community Center, Ocean View Kahuku Park, Ocean View St Jude's Church, Pahala Community Center, Papaaloa Community Gym, Volcano Cooper Center, Waimea Mana Christian Church, and Waiohinu Park. Additionally, 3 sites were within 5 miles of the 2018 Kilauea Volcano lava flow: Pahoa Community Center, Pahoa Sacred Hearts Church, and Seaview Estates. The 2018 Kilauea lava flow displaced an estimated 2,800 residents to shelters, to homes of friends and family, and to areas with higher living costs. In Year 3, DA BUX was offered on Hawaii Island through 7 KTA Super Stores locations, and The Food Basket's community-supported agriculture (CSA) and mobile market programs. These participating retailers offered a 50% discount on produce purchased with SNAP-EBT. Our former Hawaii Island DA BUX sites, including the participating farmers markets and the only participating direct-farm retailer, Dimple Cheek Market, was discontinued due to limited match funding available to support these retailers as well as their limited staffing capacity to administer the DA BUX program. While Dimple Cheek Market does not directly offer DA BUX incentives, The Food Basket continues to use Dimple Cheek Market as a distribution site for its CSA. At KTA, a maximum $20 discount limit per day per SNAP card was enforced for the entire reporting period. KTA continues to incentivize over thirty types of Hawaii Island grown fruits and vegetables, including taro leaf, apple banana, sweet potato, papaya, and oyster mushrooms. At The Food Basket, we continued to offer our CSA at a 50% discount to SNAP-EBT customers. For a 4-week subscription, SNAP customers paid $32 in advance for the first 2 weeks of their subscription and received the last 2 weeks for free. While adjusting to new operational procedures and safety protocols in response to the COVID pandemic required new costs and labor needs, The Food Basket remained committed to ensuring our CSA continued normal services. The CSA had no break in service due to the pandemic. In fact, we saw the pandemic brought new interest in our CSA because it offers an alternative for produce purchasing that minimizes the risk of COVID-19 exposure. Due to this demand, the CSA dramatically surpassed Outcome 1.1 to increase SNAP sales by 100%. In the third year of our CSA offering DA BUX incentives, from Sept 2019-Aug 2020, SNAP sales of our CSA shares purchased with SNAP benefits and DA BUX incentives totaled $149,892, reflecting a 320% increase from the baseline period of Sept 2016-Aug 2017 when incentives were not offered. (The original Outcome 1.1 target of $180,000 in yearly SNAP sales was written prematurely based on sales projections for 2016. The Food Basket adjusted its goal outcome to increase SNAP sales 100% from the actual sales for the 12-month baseline period of Sept 2016-Aug 2017 ($35,704) when no incentives were offered.) The CSA also surpassed Outcome 1.2 to increase participating SNAP households by 100%. From Sept 2019-Aug 2020, the monthly average of SNAP households increased by 148% to a monthly average of 211 households compared to the baseline period monthly average of 85 households from Sept 2016-Aug 2017. The monthly household count ranged from 149 households to 318, reflecting a peak in demand brought on by COVID-19. In Jan 2020, we asked KTA Super Stores to stop reporting the metrics previously used for FINI reporting and to instead report new metrics we felt provided stronger evidence of DA BUX impacts. To evaluate Outcome 2.1, KTA now reports on the 12-month simple-moving-average of SNAP sales of qualifying produce items compared to the baseline average from calendar year 2019. By June 2020, average monthly SNAP sales of qualifying Hawaii Island grown produce were up 28% compared with 2019, which surpasses Outcome 2.1 of a 10% increase. To evaluate Outcome 2.2, KTA now reports on the 12-month simple-moving average of unique SNAP households purchasing qualifying produce items compared to the baseline average from calendar year 2019. By June 2020, average monthly SNAP households purchasing qualifying Hawaii Island grown produce was up 9.43% compared with 2019. While this does not reach Outcome 2.2 of a 25% increase, we feel a 9.43% increase is evidence that DA BUX marketing is working to attract new SNAP customers that are either new SNAP beneficiaries or are now making the choice to shop at KTA instead of other grocery stores they normally frequent. Even small percentage increases are a significant accomplishment because of the difficulty in breaking customer loyalties to the current grocery stores where they normally shop. The Food Basket's, mobile market program was unable to continue services in a safe manner without pulling resources away from our other programs. The last mobile market sales were in March 2020.
Publications
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Progress 06/15/18 to 06/14/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The Food Basket is targeting low-income SNAP-EBT residents across Hawai'i Island who cannot afford or do not have the means to maintain a healthy consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. On Hawai'i Island, a total of 58,521 individuals received SNAP assistance in February 2014, representing a total of 30,496 households (Department of Human Services, 2014). Hawai'i Island accounts for approximately 30% of all SNAP recipients in the state (Department of Human Services, 2014). SNAP recipients who live at or below the poverty level contribute to a total of 18.1% of the population on Hawai`i Island as opposed to 11.4% in the state overall (2015 U.S. Census Bureau). The DA BUX program is especially concerned with serving residents located in its 12 USDA designated low-income/low-access "Food Deserts" (USDA Economic Research Service 2017). These areas cover nearly half of Hawai'i Island's 4,048 square miles. "Food Desserts" are census tracts where at least 500 households or 33% of the population is 1 mile or more away from a full-service supermarket in urban areas or 10 miles from a full service supermarket in rural areas. Changes/Problems:The management at KTA Super Stores is continually thinking of ways to address the challenge of low usage of their DA BUX discount sticker. As of June 2019, KTA issued discounts to only 32% of qualifying purchases. The most likely cause is lack of awareness of the program. The disadvantage of the discount sticker incentive mechanism is that it does not automatically issue incentives to all SNAP customers making qualifying purchases, whereas the previous rebate mechanism did. SNAP customers must first sign-up for a discount sticker at the Customer Service Center, and at checkout the SNAP customer must hand their SNAP-EBT card with the attached discount sticker to the cashier in order for a discount to be applied prior to swiping to pay. KTA is attempting to increase awareness by placing "shelf-talkers" of the DA BUX logo that stick out next to qualifying items and by increasing the size of the logo on printed price signage. They also added postcard sized program advertisements near the checkout terminals where customers swipe to make a payment. At The Food Basket, our most pressing challenge is funding the personnel required to operate our healthy food access programs that issue DA BUX incentives. Our CSA coordinator's salary was previously funded by a Community Food Project award, but it is now funded out of our organization's general funds. General funds are largely dependent on community donations as well as the economic environment for donor giving. Should we experience a drought in donor giving, the CSA coordinator position is one of many that we would need to consider cutting. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Noah Fulmer, the Director of National Partnerships of the Fair Food Network, provided technical assistance. He is an expert on planning and implementation of SNAP incentive programs across the country. He was remotely available to answer program implementation questions that arose and connected The Food Basket's DA BUX program staff with resources, such as photos of "double bucks" marketing from other states, guidance from other grocers on implementing automated incentives through point-of-sales (POS) systems, and other Fair Food Network staff who have expertise on submitting reports through the NIFA REEport Portal. The Fair Food Network also offers an annual Double Up Food Bucks National Convening for personnel implementing "double bucks" programs to learn from each other through guest speaker presentations, panel and group discussions, and networking activities. Kristin Frost Albrecht, Executive Director of The Food Basket, participated in the convening in Portland, Oregon from Feb 26-27, 2019. On a quarterly basis, Ms. Albrecht and DA BUX Manager, Chelsea Takahashi, met with local "double bucks" programs in Hawaii through the Hawaii Good Food Alliance retreats. Through these retreats, this "double bucks" sub-group shares and discusses metrics to evaluate and tell the story of their programs' impact in their communities. Ms. Takahashi involved high school intern, Keilah Miller, in the DA BUX program operations throughout the 2018-2019 academic school year. Keilah logged 40 intern hours helping to process and pack CSA and mobile market produce for distribution, bag produce for CSA customers picking up at The Food Basket warehouse, and cut and number produce vouchers for the Volcano Farmers Market. Ms. Miller used her internship experience to inform her career interest in pediatric care. She learned that there are several government-funded programs helping households with children to afford and access foods that provide them with proper nutrition and sustenance. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Food Basket holds an annual partner agency meeting in the fall. We communicate to over 100 agencies on the procedures and guidelines they must follow to continue receiving food from us to supply their pantries and soup kitchen. Additionally, we update them on the special programs and services we offer such as DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks. Our agencies are key partners thathelpto communicate our programs to low-income individuals and households across Hawai'i Island. On Jan 29, 2019, DA BUX Manager, Chelsea Takahashi, represented Hawaii Good Food Alliance members at a Double Bucks Symposium on the capital island. Ms. Takahashi was asked to give a presentation on Alliance members' "double bucks" programs and their impact in their communities. The Symposium was aimed to rally state agencies and food system stakeholders to support a "double bucks" appropriation in the state legislature. Our contracted evaluator, Koran Munafo, also co-presented her initial customer survey results which show high food insecurity in the communities DA BUX is serving. In total, The Food Basket personnel and volunteers shared DA BUX program information with 1,244 individuals through a combination of meetings, presentations, and tabling at community events. In addition, our state administrator of SNAP benefits, Department of Human Services, continuously distributes DA BUX flyers directly to SNAP applicants. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As a GusNIP grantee, we budgeted GusNIP funds to mail a full-sheet sized program flyer to all 21,000 SNAP households on Hawai'i Island. We are working with our SNAP state agency, Department of Human Services (DHS), to mail our flyer. DHS will include a letter insert with the flyer to assure SNAP households that DA BUX is a legitimate USDA-funded program. We anticipate this mailer will reverse the declines in the number of SNAP households purchasing from KTA Super Stores and will result in modest headway towards increasing SNAP households by 25% (outcome 2.2). The Department of Human Services mass mailer will also help us to continue our positive trajectory beyond our CSA goals of a 100% increase in both annual sales and SNAP household subscribers from the baseline period, Sept 2016-Aug 2017. As of year 2 of DA BUX availability, SNAP sales already increased 124% from baseline sales, and SNAP households increased 45%. Lastly, we plan to build relationships with our local WIC program offices to ask for their staff support in sharing DA BUX flyers with their clients.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Year 2, the DA BUX program marketed and sold Hawai'i Island grown fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV) to 11 sites within food deserts: Dimple Cheek Market, Eden Roc Park, Hawaiian Acres Community Association, Mt View Park, Waiohinu Park, Kahuku Park, Ka'u District Gym, Papa'aloa Community Gym, Kulaimano Community Center, Volcano Cooper Center, and Waimea Mana Christian Church. Additionally, two sites, Pahoa Community Center and Nanawale Community Association, were within 5 miles of the 2018 Kilauea Volcano lava flow which displaced an estimated 2,800 residents to shelters, to homes of friends and family, and to areas with higher living costs. DA BUX is not only making FFV more accessible, but it is making FFV more affordable for SNAP recipients. At a variety of outlets around the island, including farmers markets, grocery stores, a mobile market, and a direct farm retailer, DA BUX is doubling the amount of FFV that SNAP recipients can typically buy. Most outlets offer either a 50% discount on FFV purchased with EBT dollars or they are giving free produce vouchers that match EBT dollars spent on EBT eligible items. FINI grant dollars were only used to support the administration of DA BUX incentives at KTA Super Stores and The Food Basket's DA BOX community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. In 2018, KTA paused DA BUX incentives due to the installation of a new point-of-sale (POS) system in all seven of its store locations on the island. Despite over a year-long hiatus, we successfully re-launched a second pilot at their two Hilo locations (Downtown and Puainako) in March 2019. A second pilot was carried out to test a new discount incentive mechanism. While in 2017, KTA issued 50% instant rebates for qualifying produce items, KTA is now issuing 50% discounts via a barcoded sticker placed onto SNAP-EBT cards. SNAP customers must sign-up for this discount sticker at KTA stores' Customer Service Centers. KTA switched to a discount mechanism because instant rebates could no longer be programmed on their new POS. The advantage of the discount sticker over the rebate mechanism is that it more strongly promotes behavior change in SNAP customers. SNAP customers must now be aware of and engage with the program to receive incentives. They cannot receive discounts unless they first sign up for a discount sticker, as well as receive verbal and printed onboarding instructions from a Customer Service staff person. The customer must then shop for qualifying items with a DA BUX logo on the price signage and hand their SNAP-EBT card with the attached discount sticker to the cashier at checkout before swiping to pay. This new participant awareness around the program encourages SNAP customers to make conscious decisions on choosing qualifying locally grown items while they shop. Previously, instant rebates were automated for all qualifying purchases, and there was not sign-up process for customers to understand how DA BUX works. SNAP customers typically were only aware of the program on the chance that they shopped for qualifying items and received a rebate; and some customers receiving rebates still were not aware of their rebate if they were in a rush to leave the store and did not check their receipt. Following the successful March 2019 pilot of the discount sticker mechanism, KTA expanded DA BUX discounts to its entire seven-store chain in April 2019. KTA continues to incentivize over thirty types of fresh Hawaii grown fruits and vegetables, including taro leaf, apple banana, sweet potato, papaya, and oyster mushrooms, and KTA limits the incentive amount to $20 applied to only one transaction per day. At The Food Basket, incentives were offered through its CSA program. SNAP customers received a free bag of produce for every bag purchased with SNAP benefits. The cost for one bag of produce is $16. Each bag contains a minimum of seven Hawai'i Island grown items. Contents include staple items such as lettuce, cucumbers and cabbage and occasionally include unfamiliar items such as breadfruit, daikon, and turnips. When available, customers will receive extra produce items that were donated in abundance by grocery stores, backyard farmers or commercial farms. Customers typically schedule to pick up one bag per week or one bag every two weeks at their chosen pick-up location. By providing greater access and purchasing power for fresh fruits and vegetables to SNAP-EBT residents, The Food Basket ultimately aims to improve the state's alarming health statistics, especially for our large minority populations. In general, Hawai'i's minority populations are both the most economically disadvantaged and the most likely to develop chronic health conditions. For example, the Hawai`i State Department of Health report of 2010, indicates the prevalence for diabetes is highest among low income residents (13.4%), followed by Native Hawaiians (12.5%), those with low education (10.6%) and Filipinos (9.9%) (Pobutsky, A. et al., 2010). In year 1 of DA BUX availability, Sept 2017-Aug 2018, incentives boosted SNAP sales of our CSA by 69% compared to a baseline period from Sept 2016-Aug 2017 when no incentives were offered ($35,704 vs $60,224). In year 2, from Sept 2018-Aug 2019, SNAP sales increased 124% from the baseline period to $80,000. CSA SNAP sales between calendar years 2016 and 2017 are not comparable because pilot incentives were offered for the first six months in 2016 using private grant funds. A longer timeframe of incentive availability in 2016 resulted in slightly higher CSA SNAP sales than in 2017 ($42,462 vs $41,456). While incentives are dramatically boosting CSA SNAP sales, we recognize our original Outcome 1.1 target of $180,000 in yearly SNAP sales is highly optimistic. This original outcome was written prematurely based on sales projections for 2016. The Food Basket will adjust its goal outcome to increase SNAP sales 100% from the actual sales for the 12-month baseline period of Sept 2016-Aug 2017 when no incentives were offered ($35,704). We are seeing measurable gains in increasing CSA SNAP participation to 186 distinct households (Outcome 1.2). Again, comparing year 1 of DA BUX incentive availability, Sept 2017-Aug 2018, to a baseline period from Sept 2016-Aug 2017 when no incentives were offered, the monthly average of SNAP households increased 6% from 85 to 90. In year 2, Sept 2018-Aug 2019, the monthly average of SNAP households increased 45% from the baseline period to 123 households. At KTA Super Stores, we saw early success in increasing SNAP produce sales. In a KTA pilot phase that ran from September to December 2017, SNAP recipients purchased 18.26% more of the qualifying items compared with their spending on these items in 2016. During the initial implementation months of the discount sticker, from Mar 2019-Aug 2019, KTA increased sales of qualifying produce by 47% compared to sales of these items in 2018 when no incentives were offered. These results surpass our grant goal (Outcome 2.1) of increasing sales by 10%. While DA BUX incentives encouraged increased produce sales amongst SNAP recipients who were aware of the program, incentives are having no effect on the total number of distinct SNAP households redeeming their benefits at KTA (Outcome 2.2). From Mar 2019-Aug 2019, distinct SNAP households decreased 8% compared to the corresponding period in 2018. The Sept 2017-Dec 2017 DA BUX pilot, also resulted in a 7% decline in SNAP households of households compared to its corresponding period in 2016. In addition to providing incentives through the original outlets stated in our FINI grant goals, The Food Basket also offered DA BUX incentives through four farmers markets, Dimple Cheek Market, and our own DA BUS Mobile Market program. These additional services were supported by grants received from the County Council, Sophie Russell Trust, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and USDA Community Food Project program.
Publications
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Progress 06/15/17 to 06/14/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The Food Basket is targeting low-income SNAP-EBT residents across Hawai'i Island who cannot afford or do not have the means to maintain a healthy consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV). On Hawai'i Island, a total of 58,521 individuals received SNAP assistance in February 2014, representing a total of 30,496 households (Department of Human Services, 2014). Hawai'i Island accounts for approximately 30% of all SNAP recipients in the state (Department of Human Services, 2014). SNAP recipients who live at or below the poverty level contribute to a total of 18.1% of the population on Hawai`i Island as opposed to 11.4% in the state overall (2015 U.S. Census Bureau). The DA BUX program is especially concerned with serving residents located in its 12 USDA designated low-income/low-access "Food Deserts" (USDA Economic Research Service 2017). These areas cover nearly half of Hawai'i Island's 4,048 square miles. "Food Desserts" are census tracts where at least 500 households or 33% of the population is 1mile or more away from a full-service supermarket in urban areas or 10 miles from a full service supermarket in rural areas. Changes/Problems:At KTA Super Stores, the first major challenge was receiving a USDA-Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) waiver of the stores' proposed mass refund mechanism to administer incentives to SNAP customers. No other retailer in the country currently uses such a mechanism to administer incentives onto SNAP-EBT cards; as a result, we needed to request special permission from FNS. Our waiver request was approved for our pilot period at KTA from September 20, 2017 until December 26, 2017. KTA's first round of sales in September presented a few obstacles in issuing incentive refunds for all eligible SNAP purchases. In the first few days, despite detailed instructions that were posted, some cashiers did not understand the proper procedure to issue the discounts, resulting in some customers not receiving their discount. Once identified, these cashiers were re-trained in the proper procedure. Another issue cashiers encountered were customers who were unwilling to wait for their refund. Several customers declined the discount. At least one customer left the store immediately after they had paid for their purchases and before the cashier had a chance to tell them about the discount and process their refund. Based on The Food Basket's discussions with KTA Super Stores administration in January 2018, we anticipated relaunching the DA BUX program by September 2018 at all seven store locations when the implementation of their new point-of-sale system was complete. Due to construction delays at KTA's new store in Keaauhou, KTA was unable to meet this timeline. KTA now anticipates completing the implementation of their new point-of-sale system by November 2018. The second hurdle to relaunching DA BUX at KTA will be integrating a new incentive mechanism with a loyalty card program. KTA informs us that the original instant rebate mechanism will not work with the new point-of-sale system. As a result KTA is investigating ways for customers to earn points or credits for their produce purchases which can then be redeemed for more produce on a second visit. At The Food Basket, our biggest challenge is working with limited resources to reach the most SNAP customers possible. With one CSA coordinator and one dedicated cargo van we service a significant number of CSA pick-up locations where the demand is highest; however, we would like to have greater presence in food deserts or the most rural regions of the island. The challenge in establishing a pick-up site in these areas is the initial time and resource investment to create visibility, awareness and interest in the CSA. It may take up to a year of servicing a community before there is enough participation to justify the financial viability of servicing this community. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Prior to the launch of the DA BUX program, the Fair Food Network's (FFN) Noah Fulmer visited Hawai'i Island in June 2017 to provide technical assistance to the The Food Basket's FINI Coordinator and Executive Director, and KTA Super Stores' administrators. Based on his experience implementing and expanding Double Up Food Bucks in Michigan, he gave us tips on how SNAP incentives can be integrated with our outlets' SNAP redemption procedures, and he advised us on how to market the program. In addition, on June 21, 2017, Mr. Fulmer welcomed the public, including State Department of Health and State Department of Human Services administrators and social service agencies, to learn about the services and benefits Double Up Food Bucks programs are providing around the country. He presented statistics on how Double Up Food Bucks are increasing produce revenue for markets and farmers, as well as increasing the daily consumption of fruits and vegetables by SNAP recipients. Throughout the grant period, he was remotely available to answer program implementation questions that arose and connected us with resources, such as FFN online training materials, Blueprint Interactive marketing firm, and grocery store vendors using the ISS45 point-of-sale system to administer SNAP incentives. In January 2018, Mr. Fulmer made a second trip to Hawai'i Island accompanied by FFN lobbyist Kathleen Fitzgerald. The purpose of their trip was to observe and receive updates on the DA BUX program operations and to recommend program improvements. Additionally, they attended a SNAP Stakeholder meeting on the capital island of Oahu to present the success of the Double Up Bucks Food model on the mainland and to update stakeholders on Farm Bill negotiations. The most significant training opportunity the program provided was a Hawaii County First to Work (F2W) volunteer position. F2W was created to support work eligible individuals with children who are eager to enter or reenter the work force and gain work experience. In January 2018, The Food Basket accepted F2W volunteer, Kauilani Perdomo, to serve the DA BUX program. Under the supervision and mentorship of the FINI Coordinator Chelsea Takahashi, Ms. Perdomo received training in the logistics of receiving and distributing CSA produce, the processing of payments and incentives, and customer service. Ms. Perdomo is a success story of F2W because her volunteer commitment allowed The Food Basket to determine that she was a good fit for the culture of the organization and that she had the right skill set to take on the coordinator role for our newly created DA BUS Mobile Market (MM) program. MM is similar to the CSA in that it also sells produce and offers DA BUX incentives. Upon her hire in April 2018, she received additional training on produce ordering and managing purchasing and sales data in an Excel format suitable for grant evaluation. She is also constantly learning about the seasonality and variety of produce available on Hawai'i Island and the unique demands for produce in specific communities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Food Basket holds an annual partner agency meeting in the fall. We communicate to over 100 agencies on the procedures and guidelines they must follow to continue receiving food from us to supply their pantries and soup kitchen. Additionaly, we update them on the special programs and services we offer such as DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks. Our agencies are key partners that helpto communicate our programs to low-income individuals and households across Hawai'i Island. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the Year 2 reporting period, The Food Basket is focusing on an updated marketing campaign for the DA BUX program. Creating broader public awareness of our program will help us to reach our goals of increased produce purchases and increased participation by SNAP recipients at our CSA and at KTA Super Stores. We have already scheduled a 30-second radio advertisement to run for 40 days from September-December 2018. The advertisement directs listeners to go to "hawaiifoodbasket.org" where they can find details on how to take advantage of incentive offerings for all participating DA BUX outlets. Direct face-to-face outreach to members of our community is another crucial strategy we will use to market DA BUX. The Food Basket staff will continue to attend a minimum of 5 community events per month where we will display promotional material at a booth, and staff will be available to answer questions from the public. We also need to focus on directly engaging fellow social service agencies to advocate our program to their low-income clients. We will continue to spread awareness of our program amongst community leaders by attending meetings such as those hosted by the Hawaii Island Food Alliance, Ho'owaiwai Network-a County led initiative, and the East Hawaii School Symposium. Lastly, we will need to work quickly to re-launch DA BUX incentives at KTA Super Stores in 2019 once the grocery store POS Administrator and his IT team complete the installation of their new point-of-sale system and can discern the most effective incentive mechanism to program into this new system. We were already informed by the POS Administrator that the same instant rebate mechanism used in their DA BUX pilot period will not be a viable option with the new system. Prior to the re-launch of DA BUX at KTA, The Food Basket will formally pitch program changes to the grocery store administrators. Our major recommendations are based on feedback received by a six-person cashier focus group on April 13, 2018. Cashiers voiced that they wanted a small program flyer to distribute to SNAP recipients at checkout to limit customer confusion about the instant rebates they were receiving. Cashiers also recommended offering DA BUX on the first and third market week of the month, instead of only on the third week. They explained that this schedule would result in greater incentive transactions because SNAP recipients spend the bulk of their EBT dollars in the first week of the month. Offering DA BUX incentives on the third week will also be helpful to stretch customers' last remaining EBT dollars.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the Year 1 grant reporting period, the DA BUX program marketed and sold Hawai'i Island grown fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV) to seven sites within food deserts that were five miles or more from a full-service grocery store: Naalehu, Pahala, Volcano, Mt View, Hawaiian Acres, Papaaloa, and Pepeekeo. Additionally, two sites, Pahoa and Nanawale, were within 5 miles of the recent Kilauea Volcano lava flow which displaced an estimated 2,800 residents to shelters, to homes of friends and family, and to areas with higher living costs. DA BUX is not only making FFV more accessible, but it is making FFV more affordable for SNAP recipients. At a variety of outlets around the island, DA BUX is doubling the amount of FFV that SNAP recipients can typically buy. Most outlets offer either a 50% discount on FFV purchased with EBT dollars or they are giving free produce vouchers that match EBT dollars spent on EBT eligible items. FINI grant money was only used to support the administration of DA BUX incentives at KTA Super Stores and The Food Basket's DA BOX community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. KTA offered a 50% instant rebate on select produce items purchased with SNAP benefits on the third week of the month at two out of its six store locations. Rebates were limited to $20 per visit. KTA selected thirty Hawai'i Island grown FFVs that qualified for the rebates, including green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, sweet potato, papaya, and oyster mushrooms. In addition to being locally grown, these items were chosen because they are in abundant supply, ensuring KTA could keep up with increased sales during the four-month DA BUX pilot period of September to December 2017. The Food Basket's CSA offered a free bag of produce for every bag purchased with SNAP benefits. The cost for one bag of produce is $16. Each bag contains a minimum of seven Hawai'i Island grown items. Contents include staple items such as carrots, cucumbers and cabbage and occasionally include unfamiliar items such as breadfruit, daikon, and turnips. When available, customers will receive extra produce item that were donated in abundance by grocery stores, backyard farmers or commercial farms. Customers typically pick up one bag per week or one bag every two weeks at their chosen pick-up location. Customers can schedule their pick-ups on a weekly or a bi-weekly basis. By providing greater access and purchasing power for fresh fruits and vegetables to SNAP-EBT residents, The Food Basket ultimately aims to improve the state's alarming health statistics, especially for our large minority populations. In general, Hawai'i's minority populations are both the most economically disadvantaged and the most likely to develop chronic health conditions. For example, the Hawai`i State Department of Health report of 2010, indicates the prevalence for diabetes is highest among low income residents (13.4%), followed by Native Hawaiians (12.5%), those with low education (10.6%) and Filipinos (9.9%) (Pobutsky, A. et al., 2010). The initial results of the DA BUX program show that there is a large potential for nutrition incentives to catalyze a shift in the purchasing and consumption behaviors of FFV by SNAP recipients. The initial DA BUX incentive period of September 2017-June 2018 showed clear increases in CSA SNAP produce sales. Comparing the initial incentive period with its corresponding period without incentives in the year prior, September 2016-June 2017, CSA SNAP sales increased 80% from $27,386 to $49,392. This evaluation of produce sales included produce purchased with SNAP benefits. CSA SNAP sales between calendar year 2016 and 2017 are not comparable because pilot incentives were offered for the first six months in 2016. A longer timeframe of incentives in 2016 resulted in slightly higher CSA SNAP sales than in 2017; $42,462 compared with $38,966 respectively. While incentives clearly boost CSA SNAP sales, we recognize our original Outcome 1.1 target of $180,000 in yearly SNAP sales is highly optimistic. It seems the original outcome was written prematurely based on sales projections for 2016. The Food Basket will adjust its goal outcome to increase sales 100% from the actual 2016 sales total. We are seeing some measureable gains in increasing CSA participation to 186 distinct SNAP households (Outcome 1.2). Again, comparing the initial incentive period, September 2017-June 2018, to its corresponding period without incentives in the year prior, September 2016-June 2017, the monthly average of SNAP households increased 6% from 84 to 89. Evaluating only the last six months of January-June 2018, this percentage is even greater at 27%; the number of SNAP households increased from 79 to 100. At KTA Super Stores, we are also seeing early success in increasing SNAP produce sales. In a KTA pilot phase that ran from September to December 2017, SNAP recipients purchased 18.26% more of incentivized produce at KTA Super Stores compared with their spending on these items in 2016. This surpasses our grant goal (Outcome 2.1) of increasing sales by 10%. The Food Basket aims to maintain yearly percentage increases upon the relaunch of DA BUX sales. Overall, the rebate mechanism was an effective and functional method for both issuing and receiving incentives. Programming the point-of-sale (POS) system to automatically calculate refund amounts without cashier intervention was critical to minimizing wait times at checkout and to issuing the correct refund amounts. The POS system also detected all eligible purchases, allowing all SNAP-EBT customers to participate in the program. Many were pleasantly surprised at the checkout that they would receive a refund and appreciated the simplicity of the refund process. Customers needed to give minimal to zero effort to receive their refund. They did not need to register for the DA BUX program prior to shopping, and they did not need to remember to bring in any physical vouchers or coupons. While DA BUX incentives encouraged increased produce sales amongst SNAP recipients who were aware of the program, we saw a 7.1% decrease in the number of distinct SNAP recipients redeeming their benefits at KTA Super Stores. The Food Basket recognizes we need to reevaluate our marketing strategies to create greater awareness of the program. Based on a cashier focus group evaluating DA BUX, many customers did not know about the program at checkout and were surprised by the instant rebate. Several customers saw our flyer too late in the pilot period so either only had one chance or none at all to benefit from the incentive sales. General lack of awareness coupled with the short four-month time frame of the pilot period prevented us from making gains in reaching our Outcome 2.2 of a 25% increase in SNAP recipients redeeming their benefits at KTA. In addition to providing incentives through the original outlets stated in our FINI grant goals, The Food Basket also offered DA BUX incentives through four farmers markets, Dimple Cheek Market, and our own DA BUS Mobile Market program. These additional services were supported by grants received from the County Council, Sophie Russell Trust, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and USDA Community Food Project program.
Publications
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