Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The California Nutrition Incentive Program (CNIP) serves two main target audiences: California SNAP shoppers and California fruit and vegetable farmers. California SNAP shoppers are encouraged to spend their SNAP (CalFresh) benefits at participating Certified Farmers' Markets and small retailers, where they can receive a matching incentive to purchase additional California grown fruits and vegetables. There were a total of 357 active sites during this grant and there were over 1.1 million SNAP transactions made during this grant. SNAP shoppers were reached through different outreach methods, including in store/market signage and promotions, outreach through partner community organizations, social media, and local social service offices. Outreach materials are offered in multiple languages and with many visuals. As program demand grew in response to the pandemic, the program focused resources on serving as many shoppers as possible. CNIP's other target audience is California fruit and vegetable farmers. CNIP incentives can only be used for California grown fresh produce, helping increase demand for the California grown produce. Incentives are distributed at Certified Farmers Markets, which sell only California grown products, and at small retailers, encouraging those stores to source and label more California grown produce. Changes/Problems:The biggest challenge during this grant was by far the Covid-19 pandemic. It affected many aspects of the program, including: demand for incentives, operations/safety precautions, site closure (temporary and permanent), etc. As communicated previously with NIFA staff, the demand for incentives increased far above anything we had anticipated when writing the grant. This was partly due to the large increase in economic need, the desire to shop outdoors at farm-direct sites, and the increased SNAP benefits. As a result, we shifted funds away from outreach, promotion, and other activities to be able to provide more incentives. We were lucky enough to add an additional $1 million in state funding for incentives and to receive a $6.3 million GusCRR grant which allowed us to move some of our farm direct sites out of this grant for a period of time. Sites also faced challenges around operations - providing safety equipment to staff, not letting customers interact with the produce, providing pre-packed boxes of produce available for contact-less pick-up, etc. The increased number of shoppers also resulted in longer customer wait times at several high volume markets (the most notable being Heart of the City Market, in San Francisco which had wait times of over 45 minutes, but was eventually able to reduce the time to less than half that through technology upgrades and other innovations). In the beginning days of the pandemic, many of our farmers market sites closed. After they were declared essential businesses, many reopened, but some - particularly those located at health care facilities, never reopened. Lastly, CDFA staff and sub-grantee staff had to switch to more virtual contact and fewer in person site visits. This was also a challenge for our evaluation team, which had planned on doing in person shopper interviews and had a much harder time recruiting shoppers virtually. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As described above in accomplishments (Goal 4), this project offered numerous opportunities for training and professional development. Both CDFA and our subgrantees offered technical assistance and trainings to sub-grantees and implementing sites. The Ecology Center provided the bulk of trainings for all our farm direct sites. Staff there provided technical assistance through phone calls, emails, webinars, and site visits. Annual Market Match Face-to-Face: During the three-year grant period, the Ecology Center held a hybrid in-person/virtual 2-day Face-to-Face conference March 9-10, 2020 and two 1-day virtual conferences on March 8, 2021 and April 12, 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Community of Practice Webinars: Ecology Center also hosted 8 Market Match Community of Practice webinar meetings. Ecology Center also hosted an onboarding training for new partners in 2020 and 2 onboarding trainings for new partners (part 1 and 2) in 2021. Program staff also presented at the State Nutrition Action Committee, State Board of Food and Agriculture, California Small Farms Conference, and at Nutrition Incentive Hub Farm Direct meetings. Each retail store implemented its own training program to train cashiers on the program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?CDFA worked with the State Nutrition Action Committee (SNAC) to distribute promotional flyers, posters, brochures, and postcards to 8 targeted, high need counties (Fresno, Madera, Monterey, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Tulare). To reach prospective SNAP shoppers, Facebook and Instagram ads targeting zip codes with high CalFresh participant concentration (over 13% of the population) surrounding 21 Farmers Market sites were run. Individual sites used their own social media accounts and partner organizations. Most effective were partnerships with food banks, social service office, faith-based organizations, etc. A college student-specific Market Match Promotion Toolkit was created in partnership with state college Basic Needs Committee members in February 2021. This toolkit contains a Market Match Question and Answer sheet, images and captions for social media, as well as sample text for promoting Market Match on websites and marketing materials in both English and Spanish. It has been shared with dozens of state colleges and their CalFresh offices and outreach workers. Program partners also presented at conferences (California Small Farms Conference, the Nutrition Incentive Hub Convening) and CDFA staff have shared program updates with CDFA executive office staff, Governor's Office, and the California State Legislature. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Outcome 1.1: Distributed $11,755,300.32 of California grown fresh fruit and vegetable incentives at the point of purchase resulting in an additional approximate $18,813,557.97 in SNAP spending. This totals $30,568,858.29 spent through a over 1.1 million SNAP transactions at 357 sites. Outcome 1.2: Created $53,189,813 in rural economic development as measured by the SNAP economic multiplier. Outcome 1.3: Expanded to 76 new sites, including 64 sites in high need counties. Within these new sites, 9 sites were in 4 counties that did not have CNIP funds in 2019 (Kern, Modoc, Shasta, Tehama). Unfortunately, there were also 25 sites that closed permanently during this period due to the Covid-19 pandemic (primarily farmers markets that had been operating at health care facilities). Outcome 1.4: CNIP grantees submitted monthly reports through the Nutrition Incentive Hub portal data portal for sites during this grant period, including distribution and descriptive data from each site. Farm-Direct sites submitted first through the Market Match Portal, than into the Hub portal. Additionally, NPI collected data from selected sites for the external evaluation. Outcome 2.1: Ecology Center supported three Implementation Contractors (ICs) in piloting tablet and hot-spot technology at their farmers market sites. Two ICs piloted the Arkitu app at 6 markets to handle customer transactions, enter data on vendor redemptions, and produce customer and vendor reports. One IC purchased tablets for data entry at 5 markets to increase efficiency and reduce after-market data entry. Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association (PCFMA) piloted and implemented an integrated system at 32 sites using a card-reader connected to a tablet which interfaces with a custom developed Excel spreadsheet. This has streamlined recordkeeping and enforcement of the daily incentive maximum at high customer volume sites, reducing customer wait times and staff time spent on reviewing handwritten customer records. Outcome 2.2: In partnership with the CNIP grantee, Ecology Center, PCFMA has improved the functionality of their bar-coded scrip management system used for Market Match at 32 sites. Their new software and database can more easily produce reports on reimbursements by individual farmers. Outcome 2.3: Ecology Center staff updated the data portal's data fields to clarify new data requirements, including the average number of fruit/vegetable vendors per market day in each month and the operating days per month. The inclusion in the monthly report of metrics required by national evaluators has eliminated the need to ask partners for data on a separate quarterly schedule. Outcome 2.4: Ecology Center compared newer innovations, and their impact on managing the Market Match program, compared to previous benefit redemption systems and technology and complied findings in a CNIP Market Match Technology Report. Outcome 2.5: Chico Natural Foods Co-op's Produce Buyers automatically prioritizes California-grown produce and keep the lists of CNIP-qualifying items updated in the Point-of-Sale (POS) software. The Farm Fresh LA program pivoted from a voucher system to an instant redemption system, allowing any shopper making a SNAP purchase to access incentives for CA-grown produce. The neighborhood stores in San Jose used a combination of loyalty cards and vouchers, depending on the capability of the POS system at each store. Community Foods Market unfortunately was unable to weather the pandemic and closed during the final year of this grant. Outcome 2.6: CDFA's evaluation partner, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR), published a research brief in May 2023 to show the findings from an evaluation of CNIP between 2020 to 2022 (https://npi.ucanr.edu/?blogpost=56855&blogasset=113704) and a more detailed report to CDFA. Systems that integrated the incentives in the POS system as an instant rebate were the easiest to use and had the most redemption, however the best solution really depended on the needs and capabilities of each community/store. Outcome 3.1: Outreach and promotion was curtailed during the pandemic in order to shift more funds toward incentives, however approximately over 1,000,000 SNAP shoppers were reached via outreach efforts, resulting in a total of 105,064 new SNAP shoppers participating. Outcome 3.2: With the growth in demand for incentives due to the pandemic, CNIP shifted funds away from paid advertising to incentives. With less invested in paid media, we did not meet the total reach goal of 2,000,000 views/impressions. Total reach resulted in 833,404 views/impressions. The Market Match videos in Cantonese, English, Spanish, and Vietnamese have been viewed at least 9,578 times. We were not able to capture the total views that resulted from partners posting the videos via social media. For other digital content, the Market Match Facebook page reach was 134,947. MarketMatch.org had 180,906 views, and there were 231,591 Farmers' Market Finder views. Outcome 3.3: The Ecology Center created a Market Match animated explainer video in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese and distributed it to nearly 60 ICs and other organizations including CalFresh county offices. A Digital Engagement Toolkit was created and shared with ICs as well as county CalFresh offices, and a college student-specific Market Match Promotion Toolkit was created and shared. These toolkits include images and captions for social media, as well as sample text for promoting Market Match on IC's and community partners' websites and marketing materials in both English and Spanish. A placemat placard featuring 9 common questions was created in the following languages: Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Russian, Farsi, Arabic, Tagalog, Hmong, and Mixtec. Outcome 3.4: The growth in demand for Market Match/CNIP meant less need to do outreach to communities as incentive uptake accelerated. The Ecology Center conducted surveys of ICs, and also collected data during site visits, interviews, and one-on-one and group discussions. Word of mouth and partnerships with local human service agencies (food banks, CalFresh office, community centers, schools), have been the most effective methods. Outcome 4.1: CDFA staff conducted site visits and grant monitoring through invoice review, regular meetings, progress reports, and other check-ins as needed. Ecology Center staff provided ongoing technical assistance at least once a month, during review of monthly invoices and back-up documentation, and through regular phone calls, emails, group webinars, and site visits. Ecology Center developed and shared training videos and procedural documents with Implementation Contractors (ICs) to help onboard new administrative staff, market operators, and market vendors and provided once yearly trainings on operations, best practices, compliance and marketing. Outcome 4.2: The Ecology Center held a hybrid in-person/virtual 2-day Face-to-Face conference March 9-10, 2020 and two 1-day virtual conferences on March 8, 2021 and April 12, 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Community of Practice Webinars: Ecology Center also hosted 8 Market Match Community of Practice webinar meetings. Ecology Center also hosted an onboarding training for new partners in 2020 and 2 onboarding trainings for new partners (part 1 and 2) in 2021. Outcome 4.3: CDFA and sub-grantees continue to share lessons learned, promote best practices and share program outcomes during workshops and roundtables, including at the State Nutrition Action Committee, California Small Farms Conference, at Nutrition Incentive Hub Farm Direct meetings, and via the Farmer's Market Access and Equity newsletters.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is California SNAP shoppers. The seven sub-grantees of the California Nutrition Incentive Program are: Centennial Farm Foundation, Chico Natural Foods Cooperative, Ecology Center, Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC), Mandela Partners, North Figueroa Association, and The Food Trust. Sub-grantees provide nutrition incentive programs in identified high-need regions throughout California.The target audience for this project is California SNAP shoppers. The seven sub-grantees of the California Nutrition Incentive Program are: Centennial Farm Foundation, Chico Natural Foods Cooperative, Ecology Center, Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC), Mandela Partners, North Figueroa Association, and The Food Trust. Sub-grantees provide nutrition incentive programs in identified high-need regions throughout California.The target audience for this project is California SNAP shoppers. The seven sub-grantees of the California Nutrition Incentive Program are: Centennial Farm Foundation, Chico Natural Foods Cooperative, Ecology Center, Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC), Mandela Partners, North Figueroa Association, and The Food Trust. Sub-grantees provide nutrition incentive programs in identified high-need regions throughout California. Changes/Problems:Overall, the pandemic was the main challenge for the CNIP program, sites and CDFA, as we needed to be nimble, pivot, and stay on top of accommodations USDA made to communicate to sub-grantees to ease project implementation, such as temporary location or market day changes due to COVID-19. Hands-on site visits abruptly stopped with Covid lockdowns and a number of sites had to temporarily close or never open causing short staff issues and low attendance for in-person shopping. Utilizing physical tokens were a concerns for sanitization. Chico Natural Foods Cooperative saw an overall decrease in shoppers and lacked the resources to set up a home delivery system for shoppers compared to large grocery stores. Yet, the store still saw an increase in percentage of California-grown produce sales. Despite overall produce sales and store sales decreasing. To address these challenges and increase in-store shopping, the co-op remodeled their store and focused on consistently messaging about nutrition incentives throughout the community network. With the work-from-home order, Centennial Farm Foundation was not ready to set up a system of staff working from home and there was a lack of access to important files. Being short-staffed contributed to challenges tracking unique incentive customers or transactions per FM stand. The organization relies on internships for operational tasks, which was impacted by not allowing non-essential workers and the challenge of providing staff time to recruit and outreach for community support (interns and volunteers). LAPFC intended to use paper vouchers, but was concerned for the health and well-being of LAFPC staff, business owners, and their staff and customers due to the high level of contact that would be required to issue, distribute, and receive vouchers. Many customers in the community also relocated or disconnected their phones, making communication with customers more difficult. Therefore, the organization pivoted to a produce distribution program to be more direct, safe, and convenient for store owners and shoppers. So, they moved from a produce voucher program (Cal-Grown Vouchers) to produce a distribution model (Farm Fresh LA), focusing on bundling produce from local farms for an immediate discount, which solved several challenges at once. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Ecology Center, the grant recipient with largest staffing and grant award, was able to host multiple training through conferences and conventions. During the Nutrition Incentive Hub Convening in January 18, 2022, the Ecology Center staff presented information on e-tokens software systems to nutrition incentive practitioners. The organization also reached out individually to Implementing Contractors (ICs) with high volume of incentives about the offerings of various software, how it is structured, and what solutions they can provide the farm direct incentive practitioner. Ecology Center engaged market managers from all over the state in discussion of finances and data tracking, adopting and operating EBT at markets, and social media promotional strategies at the California Small Farms Conference. Ecology Center led a Market Manager Day of Learning, with a keynote address by Erin Tormey, farmer/proprietor of Farm Fatales, the founder/manager of Coastside Farmers' Markets, and the founder of The HEAL Project (Health, Environment, Agricultural Literacy). The Day of Learning engaged market managers from all over the state in discussion of finances and data tracking, adopting and operating EBT at markets, and social media promotional strategies. All sub-grantees provided training around implementation with CDFA support for sties, including around tracking and submitting required metrics. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We will publish NPI's program evaluation and inform CDFA and agricultural stakeholders when it's ready. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Two subgrantees completed their project by this period. All budgets were spent. The other subgrantees will have completed their project by the next reporting period and will complete final reporting instead. At this point, distribution and redemption systems are set at all sites, and CDFA will maintain activities and support for sub-grantees and implementing sites, and continue to support program improvements at the site level.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1.1 Distribute $2,803,792 of California-grown fresh fruit and vegetable incentives at the point of purchase resulting in an additional approximate $2,833,945 in SNAP spending. This would be a total of $5,637,737 spent through SNAP transactions at 182 sites. As a reminder, due to the pandemic, many farmers markets at medical sites, and some farmstands never opened or were closed temporarily - and a number of GusNIP sites were transferred to be GusCRR sites when CDFA was awarded CRR funding. 1.2 Created $14,810,367 in rural economic development as measured by the SNAP economic multiplier. 1.3 Eight new Ecology Center Market Match sites were added during the grant period of September 2021 to August 2022. Four of the eight new sites were added in counties that were identified as high-need in the grant narrative based on CalFresh enrollment, rates of diet-related disease, percent of the population that are low income and are food insecure. Final site numbers are reconciled up to 6 months after year's end; so comprehensive numbers will be included in the final report. 1.4 CDFA worked with all sub-grantees to collect, verify, and submit all required site and sub-grantee data. Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) at the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR) conducted the data collection and shared survey information plus conducted additional research for CDFA's project. 2.1-2.2 Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association (PCFMA), partners of the Ecology Center, is piloting an integrated system that uses card-reader connected to tablet or laptop which interfaces with a customer developed Excel spreadsheet. Using a custom-built MACRO software program, the market operator swipes the SNAP card, which reads only the card number and not any other personal identifying information, deletes all but the last 8 digits of the card, and populates an Excel sheet-based customer log. This has streamlined both the customer recordkeeping that is required and has produced an efficient way to enforce a daily incentive maximum at high customer volume sites. This has helped alleviate customer wait times and cut down on staff time to review handwritten customer records. 2.3 Ecology Center staff have made updates to the data portal's data fields to distinguish between the amount of Market Match incentives attributed to the grant funds versus matching incentive funds that some organizations use to supplement their programs using other sources of funding. Updates to the data portal were also made to clarify new data requirements based on national evaluation reporting including the average number of fruit/vegetable vendors per market day in each month and operating days per month. This helped eliminated the need to ask partners for data on a separate quarterly schedule and streamlined reporting processes for our partners. 2.4 The Ecology Center review and assessment of technology, data tracking, and overall efficiencies are ongoing. A summary of technology related lessons learned will be shared as part of the final report, including a review of some of the biggest challenges and possible technology solutions. 2.5 The challenge for The Food Trust's stores saw were the limitation of outdated POS system, so they hired POS service providers to build out best available option for distributing and redeeming incentives. Even though delayed, both locations of TFT's stores launched their incentive program. Los Angeles Food Policy Council brokered a procurement relationship with API-Forward Movement (API-FM) and With Love Café & Market to help create a procurement network of growers and buyers. The community-based institutions provided support by notifying community members of the Farm Fresh LA program and sharing CalFresh-friendly recipes through our community Chefs LA series. Chico Natural Foods Co-op were delayed with building out the new POS requirements, but their system ended up working well with immediate discounts at the register. 2.6 Due to the challenges of COVID-19, most sub-grantees had to pivot systems, as mentioned above, and best practices for the different type of grocery stores. LAFPC built a new food supply chain in the community by designing a community-centered program for the CalFresh shoppers through the produce bundles redemption program. Mandela Partners' stores figured the most effective way to promote the program was through word of mouth, and enhanced their training tools to staff. Another way of promotion that Mandela Partners attempted was applying for a marketing grant from Comcast Rise, to run a commercial of the store on Comcast cable television for 3 months. However, this was a tool the store owner felt did not work in terms of spreading the word to bring in new customers to the store. Chico Natural Foods Co-op continued to select high-quality California-grown fresh produce and marked incentive-eligible items and provided informative signage about the program. In the 2021/2022 period, the percentage of produce sales saw a 68% increase. Sub-grantees and sites were dedicated and innovative in meeting shopper needs and the individual experiences, including false starts along the way as described above, grew the GusNIP/CNIP body of knowledge and built a stronger foundation for the program. 3.1 CDFA and sub-grantees reached over 108,000 individuals through marketing activities, YouTube and Facebook posts, with an estimated gain of over 5,000 new participants. Through the various outreach methods, organizations are finding that word of mouth outreach has been the most effective to bring in new participants. While Ecology Center has continued to consistently promote Market Match online through Facebook and YouTube, some outreach efforts have shifted to supporting Implementation Contractors (ICs) through their outreach efforts. Reallocated outreach funds were used to ensure Market Match partners have sufficient funding to cover their increasing incentives. 3.2-3.3 Ecology Center created Market Match animated explainer videos in Cantonese, English, Spanish, and Vietnamese that have been viewed 3,098 times on YouTube since they were public in January 2021. During the reporting period, Ecology Center staff developed a Request for Proposal (RFP) to hire a designer to develop a "placemat" in over ten languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, Korean, Hindi, Hmong, Spanish, Tagalog, Russian, Vietnamese) for use at market info booth tables. 3.4 Evaluation of promotional approaches will occur in the Ecology Center's final report. 4.1 CDFA and Ecology Center staff provides ongoing technical assistance on at least a monthly basis during review of monthly invoices and back up documentation. Technical assistance also happens through regular phone calls, emails, webinars, and site visits. Ecology Center staff have shared training videos and procedures with Implementation Contractors (ICs) to help onboard new administrative staff, market operators, and market vendors. 4.2 Ecology Center hosted two webinars during the reporting period. The first webinar, attended by 50 ICs, provided updates on the Market Match program, CNIP funding, annual and monthly reporting changes, and a presentation about technological innovations for market operations including customer logs and daily maximums. The second webinar featured program updates and presentations about scrip practices and pros and cons of handling paper and token scrip at market. The 2-day Face-to-Face Market Match conference did not happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Ecology Center staff led a one-day virtual Face-to-Face gathering. 4.3 Ecology Center shared lessons learned, best practices and program outcomes during workshops and roundtables at the California Small Farms Conference, at Farm Direct meetings, and via the Farmer's Market Access and Equity newsletters.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The California Nutrition Incentive Program (CNIP) serves two main target audiences: California SNAP shoppers and California fruit and vegetable farmers. California SNAP shoppers are encouraged to spend their SNAP benefits at participating Certified Farmers' Markets and small retailers, where they can receive a matching incentive to purchase additional California grown fruits and vegetables. There were a total of 284 active sites during this reporting period. SNAP shoppers are reached through different outreach methods, including in store/market signage and promotions, outreach through partner community organizations and local social service offices. CNIP's other target audience is California fruit and vegetable farmers. CNIP incentives can only be used for California grown fresh produce, helping increase demand for the California grown produce. Incentives are distributed at Certified Farmers Markets, which sell only California grown products, and at small retailers, encouraging those stores to source and label more California grown produce. Changes/Problems:The biggest challenge during the period continued to be related to impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic impacted numerous sites' operations, including a number of sites closing altogether. In addition, SNAP participation increased significantly. This increase paired with the matching of Pandemic EBT, meant program participation was much higher than anticipated and we projected that the existing budget was not sufficient to meet demand through the grant's end. To address this, CDFA allocated additional state funds to meet some of the demand and applied for a GusCRR grant to meet the remaining demand. Another recent challenge that relates to the increased CalFresh/Market Match volume is increased wait time for customers. At some high-volume farmers' markets, customer wait times have increased to 45-80 minutes (while the vast majority of sites have a wait time of 0- 5 minutes.) To address this issue, the Ecology Center staff have been working with operators of high-volume sites to brainstorm and pilot solutions. Some solutions include using multiple EBT Point of Sale (POS) terminals, switching to a monthly (rather than daily) maximum, and utilizing scrip (paper or tokens) in higher denominations ($2 and $5.)Ecology Center staff also supported higher transaction sites by connecting them to each other to share knowledge about operational improvements like software-integrated incentive POS customer transaction tracking. For example, after implementing program technology upgrades and innovations (using Square, multiple terminals, monthly maximum, and $5 scrip), the highest transaction markets at Heart of the City have been able to reduce wait times for customers from 45 minutes to 20 minutes. As reported previously, numerous sites created a box program or curbside pick-up program to make it easier and safer for shoppers who did not feel safe shopping at sites during the pandemic. 10 sites offered incentives at these types of programs during the reporting period. The pandemic also impacted staff in being able to convene in person and conduct in person site visits. The annual Face to Face conference was moved to a virtual platform as were site visits. In person site visits resumed in July 2021. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In this reporting period, the project has held a virtual annual conference and several trainings and community of practice calls. The all-day virtual conference "Market Match Face-to-Face" was held on March 8th, 2021 for 77 attendees and 46 practitioner organizations. The conference offered practitioners a time to learn from each other, share best practices, and learn of state-wide updates and was held in conjunction with the Nutrition Incentive Hub Convening (in which partners also participated and presented). Additionally, partners from the Ecology Center led trainings at the California Small Farms Conference (Farmers Market Manager Training and an EBT workshop). Five quarterly Meetings/Webinars were also held as part of the Community of Practice. Trainings were also held with new partner organizations as well as new staff at existing sites. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?CDFA worked with the State Nutrition Action Committee (SNAC) to distribute promotional flyers, posters, brochures, and postcards to 8 targeted, high need counties (Fresno, Madera, Monterey, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Tulare). Facebook and Instagram ads targeting zip codes with high CalFresh participant concentration (over 13% of the population) surrounding 21 Farmers Market sites were run between May and August 2021. Some of the ads used the Market Match animated explainer video and the rest used images with a combination of photos and text. A college student-specific Market Match Promotion Toolkit was created in partnership with state college Basic Needs Committee members in February 2021. This toolkit contains a Market Match Question and Answer sheet, images and captions for social media, as well as sample text for promoting Market Match on websites and marketing materials in both English and Spanish. It has been shared with dozens of state colleges and their CalFresh offices and outreach workers. Program partners also presented at conferences (California Small Farms Conference, the Nutrition Incentive Hub Convening) and CDFA staff have shared program updates with CDFA executive office staff, Governor's Office, and the California State Legislature. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During this period CDFA secured additional state funding and a GusCRR grant to ensure the project will have enough incentives to distribute, as we continue to see a high demand for incentives due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While some sites have closed due to the pandemic (mostly those farmers' markets that were located at health care facilities), we continue to add additional sites. It should be noted, however, that with the GusCRR grant we moved (with NIFA approval) 96 sites out of this GusNIP grant into our new GusCRR grant. This change will be reflected in the next progress report. The GusCRR grant and additional state funding have also enabled us to increase the match rate to $15 per shopper (previously some markets were at $5 or $10 maximums). This will help those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and everyone experiencing the rise in food prices.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1.1 CNIP has distributed over $4.2 million of fruit and vegetable incentives at the point of purchase during this period at 284 sites resulting in over $6.8 million in SNAP spending. 1.2 Created over $20 million in economic development, as measured by the SNAP economic multiplier. 1.3 44 new farm direct sites were added and all but one of the remaining, planned brick and mortar retailers began distributing incentives. 1.4 Data from all sites is collected through multiple different avenues (Market Match portal, Nutrition Incentive Hub Portal, and Smartsheets) and shared with state and federal evaluators. For most of this period our state evaluators pivoted from collecting in-person surveys to conducting phone surveys (facilitated through QR codes and information handed out at registers) due to safety precautions relating to the pandemic. 2.1 Two farmers' market partners (Alchemist Community Development Corporation (ACDC) and North Coast Growers Association (NCGA)) piloted the use of an app, Arkitu, at 6 markets to handle customer transactions, enter data on vendor redemptions, and produce customer and vendor reports. Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM) purchased tablets to use for data entry of customer transactions at 5 markets in order to increase efficiency and reduce after-market data entry. 2.2 Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association, which offered CNIP/Market Match at 33 sites during the reporting period, invested in software upgrades and new hardware to increase the efficiency of their bar-coded scrip system. Software upgrades included moving to a new faster server structure and the linkage of the scrip data to Tableau for easier data analysis and data visualizations. Hardware upgrades have included the purchase of currency counting machines for use at farmers' markets to more rapidly create bundles of $15 of CalFresh and $15 of CNIP/Market Match (the most requested amounts) which helps move customer lines more quickly. 2.3 Subgrantee Ecology Center continued to work with developers to create a simpler user interface in the Market Match data portal that will allow for partners operating very few sites (1 - 2) to enter in the data in a form rather than an Excel and upload the Excel into the portal. This will also allow partners to edit past submissions. Launch of improvements will be in 2022. 2.4 Review and assessment of technology, data tracking, and overall efficiencies are ongoing and a final assessment will be completed at the end of the project. 2.5 The POS systems were updated at both the San Jose neighborhood markets and the Chico Natural Foods Coop, all of which offered incentives during this period except one of the San Jose stores (which began in September, right after the end of this reporting period). Unfortunately, one of the POS systems in San Jose is unable to track individual users, but the second one is able to. Due to the difficulties arising from the pandemic, the neighborhood markets in Los Angeles pivoted from a voucher system with prior enrollment to an immediate redemption model where shoppers unlock incentives by making EBT purchases, which is available to any SNAP-shopper. 6 additional retailers in the Bay Area used the "Fresh Creds" app to distribute incentives using an automatic 50% discount. 2.6 We continue to collect data and the grocery store systems will be assessed at the end of the project. 3.1 Retail shoppers were reached through store promotions, word of mouth, cashier engagement and community partners to inform these shoppers of the incentive program. An electronic version of an EBT/Market Match brochure was shared with 4 counties, and printed posters, flyers, and brochures were shared with 8 counties through partnership with the State Nutrition Action Committee. San Diego County sent text messages to 140,000 EBT users. The percent of new customer transactions during the period was 8.5%. 3.2 Subgrantee the Ecology Center created an animated explainer video (in 4 languages) that has been viewed 16,728 times on Facebook and Youtube combined. Facebook and Instagram ads were seen by a total of 120,576 unique users. General Facebook posts were seen by 133,057 users. (More in Outreach Section below.) 3.3 The Market Match animated explainer video in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese was created and distributed widely. A college student-specific Market Match Promotion Toolkit was created and distributed that includes a Market Match Q & A sheet, images, and captions for social media, as well as sample text for promoting Market Match on websites and marketing materials in both English and Spanish. 3.4 Promotional approaches will be evaluated after their conclusion and the collection of data regarding their impacts. Preliminarily, social media ads and texting campaigns have shown direct and immediate results in terms of website traffic. Fewer counties than expected have been interested in county mailers (instead opting for brochures, posters, and texting campaigns). 4.1 CDFA and the Ecology Center continued to provide technical assistance to sub-grantees on operation, administration, proportion, compliance, and quality assurance. 4.2 Ecology Center staff led 5 Market Match Community of Practice webinars, and one (virtual) Market Match "face-to-face" conference, in conjunction and coordination with the National Nutrition Incentive Hub convening. 4.3 Best practices, lessons learned, and outcomes are shared through the Market Match consortium calls and technical assistance. Additionally, both CDFA and the Ecology Center participate in the Nutrition Incentive Hub communities of practice to share and learn from grantees across the country. Best practices were also shared at the California Small Farms Conference.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The California Nutrition Incentive Program (CNIP) serves two main target audiences: California SNAP shoppers and California fruit and vegetable farmers. California SNAP shoppers are encouraged to spend their SNAP benefits at participating Certified Farmers' Markets and small retailers, where they can receive a matching incentive to purchase additional California grown fruits and vegetables. By the end of this reporting period, 244 sites participated in CNIP. SNAP shoppers are reached through different outreach methods, including in store/market signage and promotions, outreach through partner community organizations and local social service offices. CNIP's other target audience is California fruit and vegetable farmers. CNIP incentives can only be used for California grown fresh produce, helping increase demand for the California grown produce. Incentives are distributed at Certified Farmers Markets, which sell only California grown products, and at small retailers, encouraging those stores to source and label more California grown produce. Changes/Problems:We experienced several challenges this year, many related to COVID-19. Initially, many of our farmers' market sites shut down due to the state and county shelter in place orders. Some of those markets have reopened, some have reopened with modifications (different days/times/locations, offering a single "market box" with a variety of produce available for a low-contact pickup, etc), and some have remained closed. Despite having lost a significant number of market days due to COVID, we are distributing incentives at a faster rate than originally proposed, likely due to the increased economic insecurity due to COVID related job loss. Because of this increased demand, CDFA is considering shifting outreach/promotion funds toward incentives to meet this demand as well as looking for additional external funds. A few of our partners and sites were delayed in implementing - some due to COVID related challenges as well as non-COVID reasons (POS system delays). Those retailers are due to begin incentives at the beginning of the next reporting period. Additionally, our evaluation team had to shift gears from sending out people to conduct surveys in person to working with sites to distribute QR codes for an online survey (followed up by a phone call interview). This has resulted in a slower recruitment process, but was deemed necessary to maintain social distancing during COVID. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In this reporting period, the project has held an annual conference and several trainings and community of practice calls. The "Face-to-Face" conference is Market Match's annual conference. The conference took place over 2-days and featured presentations and discussion to facilitate peer-learning through a community of practice. Additionally, the California Market Match Consortium Calls were led by the Ecology Center. The community of practice was convened for two 1.5 hour calls in May and August. The call in May focused on safety protocol for COVID-19 and the call in August focused on racial equity. Lastly, in May, Ecology Center onboarded 7 new partners to the Market Match program and provided two unique trainings targeted to new partners. Returning partners with new staff also attended. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?CDFA worked with the State Nutrition Action Committee (SNAC) to distribute promotional flyers, posters, brochures, and postcards to 7 targeted counties (San Luis Obispo, Fresno, Tulare, Riverside, Sacramento, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino) over the summer. Results from these outreach efforts have been shared with SNAC members. CDFA staff have shared program updates with CDFA executive office staff, Governor's Office, and the California State Legislature. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Total incentive distribution is on track to be met well before the originally anticipated project end date due to the higher demand for incentives as a result of the economic fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic. CDFA is working to find additional funds to cover the increased demand, but if additional funds cannot be secured, expansion of the program to new sites and promotion to new shoppers will be curtailed so funds can be used to meet the current demand.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1.1 CNIP has distributed over $1.7 million fruit and vegetable incentives at the point of purchase during this period at 244 sites resulting in over $2.9 million in SNAP spending. 1.2 Created over $8 million in economic development, as measured by the SNAP economic multiplier. 1.3 This objective (expansion to new sites) was originally slated to begin during the next reporting period but is currently on hold due to the increase in demand for current incentives. If additional funding is not secured to meet the increased demand, new site expansion may have to be curtailed. 1.4 Data from all sites is collected through multiple different avenues and shared with state and federal evaluators. 2.1 We have not made progress on this technological innovation. Farmers' markets operational efforts were focused on adhering to COVID-19 safety guidelines in 2020. 2.2 The bar-coded scrip technology was enhanced through a custom dashboard integrated into a high-speed scanner. The custom dashboard enables operators to effectively track and manage scrip. The high-speed scanner reduces staff costs reconciling scrip after-market. 2.3 Developers began design work to enhance the Market Match Data portal by making it easier for Market Match partners to report on their program changes within the portal. It is also being customized to collect new, required GusNIP evaluation metrics. 2.4 Progress on this objective will be made in future progress periods, once more data from the previous objectives is available. 2.5 Grocery store sites did not begin distribution during this grant period. The neighborhood markets in San Jose had to switch to an immediate 50% discount model as their POS vendors were unable to implement the previously agreed upon loyalty card model. The retail markets in Los Angeles are switching to an immediate redemption model, where shoppers can unlock incentives by making EBT purchases. The Chico Co-op had delays in modifying the POS system, which were resolved at the end of this reporting period. 2.6 Evaluation design and recruitment of shoppers has begun at some stores and will continue to in the next reporting period. Effectiveness will be assessed after sufficient data has been collected. 3.1 Recruitment of new Certified Farmers' Market SNAP shoppers via text-messaging and mailers were put on hold due to the increased demand due to COVID. If additional funds are secured to meet the excess demand, outreach and promotion will resume. Retail shoppers were reached through store promotions and community partners to inform these shoppers of the incentive program. 3.2 Subgrantee the Ecology Center created a digital engagement toolkit with turnkey images, social media copy, and website copy for partners and County Department of Social Services departments. An animated explainer video is underway. The animated explainer video will be produced in 4 languages (English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese) and can be used in multiple channels to inform people about the program. 3.3 The digital engagement toolkit is available in English and Spanish and the animated explainer video will be available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese (Cantonese). Other graphic materials will be developed in subsequent grant years. 3.4 Promotional approaches will be evaluated after their conclusion and the collection of data regarding their impacts. 4.1 CDFA and the Ecology Center provide technical assistance to sub-grantees on operation, administration, proportion, compliance, and quality assurance. 4.2 The "Face-to-Face" annual Market Match conference took place over 2-days and featured presentations and discussion to facilitate peer-learning through a community of practice. 4.3 Best practices, lessons learned, and outcomes are shared through the Market Match consortium calls and technical assistance. Additionally, both CDFA and the Ecology Center participate in the Nutrition Incentive Hub communities of practice to share and learn from grantees across the country.
Publications
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