Progress 09/01/18 to 06/17/21
Outputs
Target Audience:This project's target audience is SNAP customers residing in Wards 5, 7, and 8. Large portions of these areas are USDA identified food deserts with little to no access to fresh, affordable, and convenient healthy options. These wards are also the area's most socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged. In Year 2 of this USDA-NIFA-FINI grant, we reached 7,731 unique SNAP customers. Since the reported average household size of SNAP customers is 3.7, we can estimate that we reached 28,605 people. The total population of SNAP customers living in these three wards is 98,291 of the 244,452 total residents in Wards 5, 7, and 8. While we aren't able to collect specific demographic information from our SNAP customers during their transactions, we can estimate that between 67% - 93% are African American and 3% - 9% are Latinx, based on neighborhood statistics. The average family income in these Wards ranges from $52,426 to $97,593, compared to the city's average of $144,270 per household. In Ward 7 and 8 specifically, nearly 3 out of 10 residents' lives below the poverty line. With just 3 full-service grocery stores for Wards 7 and 8, there is a significant food access gap for SNAP customers residing in these neighborhoods. Therefore, we reach our target audience through working primarily with corner store owners who have businesses in these neighborhoods. These business owners predominantly self-identify as racial and ethnic minorities. They also classify as small business owners/entrepreneurs. By working with corner store owners to improve corner store environments, we're providing greater fresh produce access and affordability for SNAP customers living in under-resourced communities. Changes/Problems:COVID-19 continues to impact customers, corner store operations, and our business processes. At DC Central Kitchen, we continue to prioritize staff health and safety and have been working to provide online ordering, ordering by phone, and virtual and phone base technical assistance to stores on merchandizing in order to limit staff exposure, while continuing to make regular deliveries to stores. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided individual training opportunity for all participating FINI stores. In addition to distributing produce, our team continued to provide one-on-one training on merchandizing best practices, point of sales systems, infrastructure updates, marketing technics, and customer service in Year 2. Additionally, we hired two community-based Corner Store Champions, who we provided continued training to in Year 2. This year we also provided nutrition education training for our Corner Store Champions, taught by dieticians on staff at DC Central Kitchen. Further, DC Central Kitchen continued to partner with the National Association of Corner Stores and provided training and shared best practices with corner stores and nonprofits around the country. This included quarterly calls discussing SNAP matching programs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our team has direct and ongoing contact with our community of interest. We participate as members of the Ward 7 Health Alliance, the Ward 8 Health Council, and the DC Food Policy Council to share updates and relevant results to community members. Our Corner Store Champions share updates directly with their friends, neighborhoods, stores in their portfolio, and other members of the community. And our deep connections to other FINI grantees like Fair Food Network (Michigan), Food Trust, and the Washington State Department of Health has allowed us to share best practices. We also continued our partnership with the National Association of Corner Stores, The Food Trust, Partnership for a Healthier America, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and DC Greens, and worked together to plan and implement a virtual conference in October 2020 sharing best practices with the network. Additionally, DC Central Kitchen provides a monthly newsletter for our partner retailers to keep them updated on the project and best practices. Lastly, news stories were shared on DC Central Kitchen's website and popular social media channels. 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 Year 2, DC Central Kitchen was able to build on the early success of our "5 for 5" incentive program. DC Central Kitchen advanced its goal of providing point of sale incentives at corner stores by partnering with 21 corner stores. We engaged 7,731 unique customers during the reporting period, and 84% of those customers were repeat customers. Through the incentive program, SNAP customers redeemed $181,152 of fresh produce. During Year 2, we partnered with American University's Department of Health Studies to conduct a study of our program. American University conducted customer intercept surveys to assess customer attitudes and perceptions, with a focus on whether or not the "5 for 5" program is helping residents to buy and eat more fresh produce regularly. Some of the findings from customer intercept surveys include: • 37% of respondents said that they purchase their fruits and vegetables regularly at the corner store, • 41% of respondents said that the price of produce at the corner store was good or great, and 51% stated that the pricing was fair, • 49% of respondents said they shopped at their corner store daily, • When asked "How would you say the 5-for-5 coupon program affected your fruit and vegetable consumption", 100% of respondents said I eat more or a lot more fruits and vegetables, and • When asked "How would you say the 5-for-5 coupon program affected your family's consumption of fruits and vegetables", 80% said they eat more or a lot more fruits and vegetables. DC Central Kitchen advanced its goal of expanding capacity to stock and sell fresh fruits and vegetables in the performance period. Some of the increases in healthy food footprints at stores include: • 1 participating FINI store rededicated existing infrastructure for healthy food items in their store • 2 participating FINI stores received large infrastructure upgrades for healthy food items • 18 participating FINI stores installed small infrastructure upgrades for healthy food items Participating FINI stores have expanded their variety of produce by 114% since the start of our project. Additionally, during Year 2, Stanton Market in DC's Ward 8 opened their doors. The owner of Stanton Market was operating another participating FINI store, and decided to open another location as a small neighborhood market to increase the size of their grocery retail. We worked closely with the store owner, proving technical assistance and investing in the store by installing 2 large refrigerators for Healthy Corners products so they can provide a great variety of produce to customers. DC Central Kitchen advanced its goal of deploying creative marketing and nutrition education activities during Year 2. In Q1 and Q2 of the performance period, we conducted 58 educational and outreach events that promoted Healthy Corners. We worked with partner organizations like Unity Health Care, DC Healthy Families, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, and DC Hunger Solutions who participated in some of those events and provided additional services like blood pressure screenings,insurance eligibility screening, colorectal cancer screenings and SNAP benefits assistance. Through those partnerships and others, we were able to make 37 referrals for other services. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to hold the nutrition education events we had slotted for the Spring and Summer. This summer, we implemented a marketing campaign aimed at increasing traffic to Healthy Corner stores, increasing purchases, and advertising the Healthy Corners App. Marketing included: bus shelters and targeted mailers indicating their closer healthy corners location. We launched the App last quarter and used our advertisements and our store champions to encourage downloads. During the quarter 170 people downloaded the app. The app contains information about store locations, if the store accepts SNAP, and if the store is a "5 for 5" participant. Additionally, we list recent orders, so users can see the variety of produce that is likely to be available at the store location and other useful resources.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Snelling AM, Yamamoto JJ, Belazis LB, Seltzer GR,
McClave RL, and Watts E (2020). Incentivizing Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program purchases with fresh produce in corner stores to
reduce food inequity in underserved areas of Washington DC, Health
Equity 4:1, 386393, DOI: 10.1089/heq.2020.0028.
|
Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:This project's target audience is SNAP customers residing in Wards 5, 7, and 8. Large portions of these areas are USDA identified food deserts with little to no access to fresh, affordable, and convenient healthy options. These wards are also the area's most socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged. In Year 2 of this USDA-NIFA-FINI grant, we reached 7,731 unique SNAP customers. Since the reported average household size of SNAP customers is 3.7, we can estimate that we reached 28,605 people. The total population of SNAP customers living in these three wards is 98,291 of the 244,452 total residents in Wards 5, 7, and 8. While we aren't able to collect specific demographic information from our SNAP customers during their transactions, we can estimate that between 67% - 93% are African American and 3% - 9% are Latinx, based on neighborhood statistics. The average family income in these Wards ranges from $52,426 to $97,593, compared to the city's average of $144,270 per household. In Ward 7 and 8 specifically, nearly 3 out of 10 residents' lives below the poverty line. With just 3 full-service grocery stores for Wards 7 and 8, there is a significant food access gap for SNAP customers residing in these neighborhoods. Therefore, we reach our target audience through working primarily with corner store owners who have businesses in these neighborhoods. These business owners predominantly self-identify as racial and ethnic minorities. They also classify as small business owners/entrepreneurs. By working with corner store owners to improve corner store environments, we're providing greater fresh produce access and affordability for SNAP customers living in under-resourced communities. Changes/Problems:COVID-19 continues to impact customers, corner store operations, and our business processes. At DC Central Kitchen, we continue to prioritize staff health and safety and have been working to provide online ordering, ordering by phone, and virtual and phone base technical assistance to stores on merchandizing in order to limit staff exposure, while continuing to make regular deliveries to stores. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided individual training opportunity for all participating FINI stores. In addition to distributing produce, our team continued to provide one-on-one training on merchandizing best practices, point of sales systems, infrastructure updates, marketing technics, and customer service in Year 2. Additionally, we hired two community-based Corner Store Champions, who we provided continued training to in Year 2. This year we also provided nutrition education training for our Corner Store Champions, taught by dieticians on staff at DC Central Kitchen. Further, DC Central Kitchen continued to partner with the National Association of Corner Stores and provided training and shared best practices with corner stores and nonprofits around the country. This included quarterly calls discussing SNAP matching programs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our team has direct and ongoing contact with our community of interest. We participate as members of the Ward 7 Health Alliance, the Ward 8 Health Council, and the DC Food Policy Council to share updates and relevant results to community members. Our Corner Store Champions share updates directly with their friends, neighborhoods, stores in their portfolio, and other members of the community. And our deep connections to other FINI grantees like Fair Food Network (Michigan), Food Trust, and the Washington State Department of Health has allowed us to share best practices. We also continued our partnership with the National Association of Corner Stores, The Food Trust, Partnership for a Healthier America, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and DC Greens, and worked together to plan and implement a virtual conference in October 2020 sharing best practices with the network. Additionally, DC Central Kitchen provides a monthly newsletter for our partner retailers to keep them updatedon the project and best practices. Lastly, news stories were shared on DC Central Kitchen's website and popular social media channels. 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 Year 2, DC Central Kitchen was able to build on the early success of our "5 for 5" incentive program. DC Central Kitchen advanced its goal of providing point of sale incentives at corner stores by partnering with 21 corner stores. We engaged 7,731 unique customers during the reporting period, and 84% of those customers were repeat customers. Through the incentive program, SNAP customers redeemed $181,152 of fresh produce. During Year 2, we partnered with American University's Department of Health Studies to conduct a study of our program. American University conducted customer intercept surveys to assess customer attitudes and perceptions, with a focus on whether ornot the "5 for 5" program is helping residents to buy and eat more fresh produce regularly. Some of the findings from customer intercept surveys include: 37% of respondents said that they purchase their fruits and vegetables regularly at the corner store, 41% of respondents said that the price of produce at the corner store was good or great, and 51% stated that the pricing was fair, 49% of respondents said they shopped at their corner store daily, When asked "How would you say the 5-for-5 coupon program affected your fruit and vegetable consumption", 100% of respondents said I eat more or a lot more fruits and vegetables, and When asked "How would you say the 5-for-5 coupon program affected your family's consumption of fruits and vegetables", 80% said they eat more or a lot more fruits and vegetables. DC Central Kitchen advanced its goal of expanding capacity to stock and sell fresh fruits and vegetables in the performance period. Some of the increases in healthy food footprints at stores include: 1 participating FINI store rededicated existing infrastructure for healthy food items in their store 2 participating FINI stores received large infrastructure upgrades for healthy food items 18 participating FINI stores installed small infrastructure upgrades for healthy food items Participating FINI stores have expanded their variety of produce by 114% since the start of our project. Additionally, during Year 2, Stanton Market in DC's Ward 8 opened their doors.The owner of Stanton Market was operating another participating FINI store, and decided to open another location as a small neighborhood market to increase the size of their grocery retail. We worked closely with the store owner, proving technical assistance and investing in the store by installing2 large refrigerators for Healthy Corners products so they can provide a great variety of produce to customers. DC Central Kitchen advanced its goal of deploying creative marketing and nutrition education activities during Year 2. In Q1 and Q2 of the performance period, we conducted 58 educational and outreach events that promoted Healthy Corners. We worked with partner organizations like Unity Health Care, DC Healthy Families, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, and DC Hunger Solutions who participated in some of those events and provided additional services like blood pressure screenings, insurance eligibility screening, colorectal cancer screenings and SNAP benefits assistance. Through those partnerships and others, we were able to make 37 referrals for other services. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to hold the nutrition education events we had slotted for the Spring and Summer. This summer, we implemented a marketing campaign aimed at increasing traffic to Healthy Corner stores, increasing purchases, and advertising the Healthy Corners App. Marketing included: bus shelters and targeted mailers indicating their closer healthy corners location. We launched the App last quarter and used our advertisements and our store champions to encourage downloads. During the quarter 170 people downloaded the app. The app contains information about store locations, if the store accepts SNAP, and if the store is a "5 for 5" participant. Additionally, we list recent orders, so users can see the variety of produce that is likely to be available at the store location and other useful resources.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Snelling AM, Yamamoto JJ, Belazis LB, Seltzer GR,
McClave RL, and Watts E (2020). Incentivizing Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program purchases with fresh produce in corner stores to
reduce food inequity in underserved areas of Washington DC, Health
Equity 4:1, 386393, DOI: 10.1089/heq.2020.0028.
|
Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:This project's target audience is SNAP customers residing in Wards 5, 7, and 8. Large portions of these areas are USDA-identified food deserts with little to no access to fresh, affordable, and convenient healthy options. These wards are also the area's most socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged. In Year 1 of this USDA-NIFA-FINI grant, we reached 9,387 unique SNAP customers. Since the reported average household size of SNAP customers is 3.7, we can estimate that we reached 34,732 people. The total population of SNAP customers living in these three wards is 98,291 of the 244,452 total residents in Wards 5, 7, and 8. While we aren't able to collect specific demographic information from our SNAP customers during their transactions, we can estimate that between 67% - 93% are African American and 3% - 9% are Latinx, based on neighborhood statistics. The average family income in these Wards ranges from $52,426 to $97,593, compared to the city's average of $144,270 per household. In Ward 7 and 8 specifically, nearly 3 out of 10 residents' lives below the poverty line. With just 3 full-service grocery stores for Wards 7 and 8, there is a significant food access gap for SNAP customers residing in these neighborhoods. Therefore, we reach our target audience through working primarily with corner store owners who have businesses in these neighborhoods. These business owners predominantly self-identify as racial and ethnic minorities. They also classify as small business owners/entrepreneurs. By working with corner store owners to improve corner store environments, we're providing greater fresh produce access and affordability for SNAP customers living in under-resourced communities. Citation: Greater DC, a project of the Urban Institute Changes/Problems:Our major limitation was the reluctance among corner store owners to participate in the data entry process. Instead of store owners submitting their point of sales information and/or itemized receipts electronically, as intended in our proposal, we've instead had to dedicate significant staff time (0.5 FTE) on manual data entry from paper receipts we receive from stores. While our team has suggested a few iterations of work that would increase store owner participation in data entry, all have been refused by participating stores. We continue to seek out new systems to decrease the staff time spent on manual data entry which is expensive, time consuming, and poses a higher risk for data errors. A pivot that our team made was to redirect project time originally dedicated to an ad campaign to instead provide updated physical marketing materials like sandwich boards, floor decals, and aisle signage to all participating stores. This pivot was well received by store owners and SNAP customers alike. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided individual training opportunity for all participating FINI stores. In addition to distributing produce, our team provided one-on-one training on merchandizing best practices, point of sales systems, infrastructure updates, marketing technics, and customer service. Our team also tracked DC's new legislation that loosened restrictions on stores eligible to receive Women Infant and Children (WIC) benefits, advocated to DC Council to loosen these regulations, and ultimately helped 5 corner stores apply to become WIC vendors. Receiving this status would help to further transform the corner store environment to one that could be a consistent and larger-scale access point for healthy, affordable foods. Our team also held the District's first Nutrition Educator Summit attended by 50 organizations with nutrition educators on staff. The results of this two-day conference included commitments from educators to share best practices and curricula and establish shared systems to track collective impact. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our team has direct and ongoing contact with our community of interest. We participate as members of the Ward 7 Health Alliance, the Ward 8 Health Council, and the DC Food Policy Council to share updates and relevant results to community members. Our Corner Store Champions share updates directly with their friends, neighborhoods, stores in their portfolio, and other members of the community. And our deep connections to other FINI grantees like Wholesome Wave, Fair Food Network (Michigan), and the Washington State Department of Health has allowed us to share best practices. We also presented at the National Association of Convenience Stores' healthy food retail forum held in coordination with the Partnership for a Healthier America. Lastly, news stories were shared on DC Central Kitchen's website and popular social media channels. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Because this program vastly exceeded expectations for what a small footprint store could do to increase stocking capacity of fresh fruits and vegetables, we have spent down incentive dollars significantly faster than predicted. If store sales continue on their current trajectory, we will spend down 100% of our incentive dollars in late 2019 or early 2020, an entire 18 months earlier than projected. After initial conversations with our contacts at NIFA, we decided to apply for an additional FINI (now GusNIP) grant to allow this program to continue for the full three years, as intended. Should this funding come through, we intend to pilot a new model for the "$5 for $5" campaign. Instead of incentive being triggered by any $5 purchase of SNAP eligible items, a customer would have to purchase at least 1 fruit or vegetable in their initial $5 purchase of SNAP eligible items to trigger the incentive. This model would still encourage stores to invest in healthier food retail infrastructure while slowing down the use of incentive dollars among SNAP customers. Additionally, in the new reporting period, our team intends to analyze the results of the MBAT evaluation to help build supply chains for new produce items and healthier products such as whole gain items and fresh juices.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
DC Central Kitchen's Healthy Corners program began implementing the "$5 for $5" incentive program last September 2018, and officially launched its incentive dollars campaign in October 2018. The public launch event held in November 2018 was attended by USDA NIFA's National Program Leader Dr. Jane Clary Loveless. In Year 1, the project exceeded all key deliverables and has been a District-wide focal point for how an influx of innovation, funding, and small business technical support can create healthier food environments in our city's most under-resourced areas. Our team trained 17 corner stores to participate in the "$5 for $5" campaign which matched any $5 of eligible SNAP purchases with $5 to be spent exclusively on fresh produce at that corner store or a select group of nearby stores. We provided each participating store with free branded marketing materials, updated infrastructure, and free technical assistance to support merchandizing and healthy food retail best practices. We also trained 3 community residents to become paid 'Corner Store Champions' who each managed a portfolio of 3 participating corner stores. The champions were responsible for being present at their stores frequently to solicit customer feedback, attend Healthy Corners events and cooking demonstrations, attend community events to share information on the program, flier their neighborhood, and connect with local businesses to promote the program. From October 2018 to July 2019, the project distributed $181,335 of incentives (36,267 unique coupons distributed) with $133,170 redeemed (27,147 unique coupons redeemed). This 75% incentive redemption rate is both higher than our original deliverables stated and higher than comparable FINI programs. Participating stores increased their produce orders by 336% compared to the same months the previous year, and stocked 80% more varieties of produce, on average. We estimate total store revenues of $248,923.32 from selling Healthy Corners products in Year 1. The influx of affordable fresh produce combined with our team's technical assistance to corner store owners resulted in significant store owner investments in creating healthier store environments. We witnessed store owners replacing slushie machines with produce refrigeration, and moving produce displays from the backs of aisles to high-traffic spaces like countertops and aisle endcaps. Our team evaluated each participating store's healthy retail environment using the Market Basket Assessment Tool (MBAT) and will do so each year of this project. This project reached 9,387 unique SNAP customers during this period, with an estimated total reach of 34,732 given the average SNAP household size is 3.7 individuals. When accounting for repeat customers, the reach was 32,604. Preliminary results from our external evaluator, American University's Department of Health Studies, show that based on two rounds of customer intercept surveys at 3 participating stores (n=65, 38 of whom were SNAP users), more than half shopped at their corner store 'daily or nearly daily', and eight in ten had purchased fruits and vegetables at the corner store. Among SNAP users, 72% said they were eating more fruits and vegetables because of the "$5 for $5" program. Customers were satisfied with both the quality and variety of the produce and indicated that this program was a good substitute for a lack of grocery stores in the neighborhood.
Publications
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