Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the Double Up Texas expansion project includes Texas residents and households receiving SNAP benefits (living at or below 130% of the federal poverty line). HHSC data from Jan-May 2023, describes the Texas SNAP households as 58% identifying as White, 10% Black, and less than 1% of all other racial groups, while 41% identify as of Hispanic ethnicity. Participant surveys collected during this time period demonstrate a similar demographic distribution as at the state level: nearly half of participants (49%) identified as being of Hispanic origin, 57% identified as White, 15% as Black, 3% as American Indian, 4% as Asian, and 7% as multi-racial or 'other' race. Fourteen percent of participants did not provide a response to demographic questions. Double Up Texas supports participating outlets throughout the state including urban, suburban/peri-urban, and rural communities. During this reporting period, the project reached SNAP households in 8 out of 11 TX Health and Human Services (TXHHSC) Regions and 18 counties. Specifically: Region 1, urban households in Lubbock county and rural households in Hale, Terry, and Swisher counties. Region 2, both urban and rural households in Wichita county Region 3, urban households in Tarrant and Dallas county, also known as the Dallas-fort-Worth metroplex. Region 6, urban households in Galveston county Region 7, urban & peri-urban households in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, and McLennan counties. This area includes the greater Austin metro area. Region 8, urban & peri-urban households in Bexar, Comal, and Guadalupe counties. This area includes the greater San Antonio metro area. Region 10, urban & peri-urban households in El Paso county, including the El Paso metro area. Region 11, urban and rural households in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. This area is along the U.S.-Mexico border and includes the Brownsville Metro Area. Changes/Problems:We are not making major changes to our implementation in this project year. However, we did encounter some challenges that slowed our rate of expenditure. The single biggest barriers to incentive spending continue to be funding and POS system incompatibility. Many major retail chains are interested in expanding to all stores within their network, or none at all. Currently, our budget isn't large enough to support that level of expansion. Furthermore, we are committed to serving statewide geographies and expanding within farm direct networks. Other retailers, both large and small, are challenged by the investments need to make their POS system compatible with Double Up Food Bucks. We have found some retail partners (e.g., Albertsons) who are willing to expand within their network at a pace that matches our budget. We are also having success finding retailers who can make small, cost-neutral upgrades to make their POS systems compatible (e.g., Chicho boys). In the coming year, we will be using state funding to provide grants to grocery retailers to upgrade their POS systems, as well as raising the daily limit within existing grocery partners (e.g., United) in order to expend our incentive budget. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In project year 2, SFC staff and staff from the Double Up Texas regional lead organizations attended the following conferences: Texas Organic Farmers and Growers Association, National Agricultural Marketing Summit, Baylor Hunger Collaborative Conference, Root Cause Conference, American Public Health Association Conference, the Healthier Texas Summit, and the Nutrition Incentive Hub Food Land and Culture Mini Convening; and participated in the following ongoing working groups: NOPREN (Food Security Working Group, Dollar Store Learning Collaborative, Healthy Food Retail Working Group, Nutrition Incentive Hub Communities of Practice (Local and Regional Sourcing in Grocery Community of Practice, the SNEB Public Health Nutrition Practice Group, the South Plains Hunger Solutions Coalition, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. SFC continued to provide training & capacity building to our regional lead partners, as well as our implementing partners. In project year 2, SFC held monthly meetings with each regional lead partner and convened the Double Up Texas coalition as a group twice. SFC initiated a community of practice for our farm direct implementing partners, holding two meetings accessible to all partners. Finally, SFC launched and trained partners on the Double Up Texas toolkit, providing promotional and marketing templates as well as how-to and training guides for all Double Up Texas partners. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?SFC presented results and information about Double Up Texas at the Texas Organic Farmers and Growers Association conference (Jan 2024), the Root Cause Conference (Dec 2023), and the Healthier Texas Summit (Nov 2023). SFC provided Farm-direct Biannual Reports for existing partners, showing each partner's key metrics. SFC published an impact report available on the SFC website and shared with all of our stakeholders. Finally, the Double Up Texas team convened over 50 different stakeholders for a virtual "State of the Program" report, providing an update on Double Up Texas progress and future plans. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we are poised to make significant progress toward our goals. We received a grant from the State of Texas for nutrition incentives, much of which can serve as match for our next large-scale Gus grant. The funding also provides support for the purchase of SNAP equipment at farmers' markets and upgrades to POS systems for grocery retailers, both of which are sorely needed in Texas. We already have a grocery retail partner with nine stores in under resourced neighborhoods of Houston who is planning to upgrade their POS system and join our network. SFC's farm viability team is developing a system to equitably distribute staffing and equipment grants to new farmers' markets across the state. Finally, SFC is in the process of recruiting a regional lead partner (the East Texas Food Bank) in Tyler, TX, which will help us reach a new geography within the state. In order to ensure the sustainability of the program, SFC's policy team is working to maintain funding for nutrition incentives in the Legislative Appropriation Request made by the Health and Human Services Commission for the coming legislative session. That work is supported by grants from Center of Science in the Public Interest, Methodist Health Ministries, and the Episcopal Health Foundation.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables for SNAP households by expanding grocery retail and farm-direct program sites to communities with low access to fresh nutritious foods. Double Up Texas expanded to 15 new firms, including 6 brick & mortar retailers and 9 farm-direct retail outlets (for a total of 53 firms with 23 brick & mortar and 30 farm direct retailers as of September 30, 2024). Sustainable Food Center led the Double Up Texas expansion into a variety of grocery retailers during this project period, including large- and small-scale firms. In the Austin area, the program expanded to include two Randalls locations. In the San Antonio metro area, with the support of new Double Up Texas regional lead partner SAMHD, Double Up Texas expanded into Chicho Boys Fruit Market. Chicho Boys is considered a corner store; however, 90% of their product is fresh produce. They are an institution in San Antonio, providing an important food access outlet for West San Antonio. In the Lubbock and Amarillo areas, Double Up Texas expanded into multiple Rancher's Storefront locations. Rancher's Storefront is owned and operated by a West Texas Rancher and 100% of their products are produced locally in West Texas. These expansion projects reflect the diversity of retailers Double Up Texas is committed to supporting in order to both improve food security and support farmers across Texas. Double Up Texas engaged new farm direct firms across the state including farmers' markets in Mineral Wells (region 7), Smithville (region 10), Fort Worth (region 3), Elgin (region 7), Dallas (region 3), Tyler (region 4), Azle (region 3), Plainview (region 1), and Del Valle (region 7). Sustainable Food Center led the expansion and on-boarding for most sites and supported regional lead partner Texas Health Community Hope (formerly Blue Zones Project and Texas Health Resources) to expand within region 3. Progress towards this goal did not reach intended targets of 20 new brick & mortar firms and 25 new farm-direct firms. However, in our efforts for outreach and recruitment of firms, new tools and processes were developed to help guide on-going expansion and partnership development during year three of this project. Goal 2:Increase the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables among SNAP households across Texas by providing $1-to-$1 matching incentives at participating GR and FD outlets. Under this goal, Double Up Food Bucks Texas reached an estimated 55,158 SNAP Households across the state, with 51,749 served at grocery retail locations and 3,409 served at farm-direct locations. This represents a 61% increase over year 1 of the project. While we did not meet our two-year goal, the program is growing at a pace. In support of participation outreach and retention objectives, SFC's Double Up Help Desk expanded its services to regions outside of Central Texas. The support services provided by the promotoras who staff the Help Desk, reached over 3,000 participants and firms in West Texas (Regions 1 & 2), the Dallas-Forth Worth area (Region 3), El Paso (Region 10) and the Brownsville/McAllen area (Region 11). Each of these areas was assigned a member of promotora team to serve as a Help Desk & Community Engagement Liaison. In this role, each promotora provided on-going support to participants in their respective region via the Help Desk, while also maintaining consistent communications with regional leads regarding feedback from participants, updates to firm operations, and cross-referrals from other community partners. Promotora Liaisons also conducted in-person visits to their respective regions to provide hands on community engagement training to firms and partners. The Double Up Texas team significantly increased our efforts in cooking and nutrition education for our participants. Free nutrition classes are now being offered to Double Up Texas participants in four regions of the state and on-the-spot nutrition education in the form of recipe samplings and tablings are being held throughout the network. These events help promote produce and draw in new clients. Finally, SFC is expanding the Double Up Texas network of regional leads, which is facilitating program adoption by clients in new geographic areas. At the end of project year 1, Desert Spoon Food Hub in El Paso, TX joined the network bringing with them Spoon Flower Grocery and Bodega Loya farm stand. During this project year, SFC formed a partnership with the Healthy Neighborhoods Team of the San Antonio Metro Health Department (SAMHD). SAMHD brings their network of health corner stores into Double Up Texas, facilitating grocery retail service to clients in San Antonio. Goal 3: Improve the economic well-being of Texas farmers through the increased purchase of Texas-grown produce among SNAP households. Under this goal, Double Up Food Bucks Texas achieved a total of $630,667 in SNAP incentive sales for fresh fruits and vegetables at grocery retail locations and another $77,346 in SNAP incentive sales for fresh, Texas-grown fruits and vegetables at farm-direct locations. This represents approximately 16% growth compared to year 1 of the project. While we fell short of our overall goals for incentive expenditure and for incentive redemptions at farm direct sites, we are exploring new ways to increase redemptions. These include increasing the daily limit from $5 to $10 within United Supermarkets and hosting Triple Up days at farm direct sites throughout the network. In order to promote local sourcing within grocery retail partners, the SFC team continued to work with Wheatsville Coop to identify opportunities for matchmaking with local farmers. Additionally, we have generated interest in local procurement among two new partners, Albertsons and Chicho Boys. We will work to develop local sourcing baselines with these partners and identify Texas farmers with the potential to supply produce that meets the needs of these retailers.
Publications
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Progress 09/15/22 to 09/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the Double Up Texas expansion project includes Texas residents and households receiving SNAP benefits (living at or below 130% of the federal poverty line). HHSC data from Jan-May 2023, describes the Texas SNAP households as 58% identifying as White, 10% Black, and less than 1% of all other racial groups, while 41% identify as of Hispanic ethnicity. DU Texas has a variety of participating outlets in various regions of the state and in urban, suburban/peri-urban, and rural communities. Those reached during this reporting period includes SNAP households in 8 (out of 11) of the TX Health and Human Services (TXHHSC) Regions. A demographic distribution, similar to that at the state level was found from participant surveys collected during this project period. Those surveys indicated, nearly half (49%) identified as being of Hispanic origin and 57% identify as White, 15% as Black, 3% as American Indian, 4% as Asian, and 7% as multi-racial or 'other' race, while 14% did not provide a response. For this period efforts reached SNAP households in; Region 1, urban households in Lubbock county and rural households in Hale, Terry, and Swisher counties. Region 2, both urban and rural households in Wichita county Region 3, urban households in Tarrant and Dallas county, also known as the Dallas-fort-Worth metroplex. Region 6, urban households in Galveston county Region 7, urban & peri-urban households in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, and McLennan counties. This area includes the greater Austin metro area. Region 8, urban & peri-urban households in Bexar, Comal, and Guadalupe counties. This area includes the greater San Antonio metro area. Region 10, urban & peri-urban households in El Paso county, including the El Paso metro area. Region 11, urban and rural households in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. This area is along the U.S.-Mexico border and includes the Brownsville Metro Area. Changes/Problems:Implementation of the Double Up Texas Expansion Project ran into a few delays, setbacks, and unexpected barriers that necessitated pivots and alternative strategies to achieve the project goals. Initially, an existing grocery retail partner was poised to expand the program to 20 additional stores in early 2023, after a major upgrade to their Point-of-Sale system. However, the partner changed course and discontinued the program entirely one the POS upgrade was near completion. The installation of self-checkout lanes rendered their POS incompatible with the SNAP incentive program and additional upgrades to make it compatible were too costly to justify. Therefore, the original plan to reach the goal of 20 additional brick and mortar firms was setback significantly and alternate partnerships needed to be developed. The time and effort needed to establish new grocery retail partnerships took away from other activities, such as recruitment of farm-direct partners and firms. Limitations in POS systems continued to prove challenging for grocery retailers of all sizes. In most cases a solution was developed without much cost on the side of the retailer. There are still several interested and/or potential partners that we have not been able to move forward with due to this continued barrier. However, much knowledge and capacity building amongst the project team emerged from this effort. The end of the pandemic-related increase to monthly SNAP allotments led to significant impacts on the program across the state. Some firms, including both brick & mortar and farm-direct, saw up to a 60% decrease in monthly SNAP incentive redemptions. The Brownsville Farmers Market, operated by the project sub-awardee, BWC was among those most heavily affected. Not all firms saw this impact, however. Decreases occurred mostly at the firms that have participated for at least a year, while many of the more recently established firms seeing continued increases in their monthly SNAP incentive redemptions. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the first year of the Double Up Food Bucks Texas Expansion Project, efforts focused heavily on training, professional development and capacity building for SFC's project team, our regional lead partners, and implementing partner firms. By investing time and resources in the development of knowledge, skills, and capacity of the project team and partners at all levels, Double Up Texas as a whole is primed for more significant growth and expansion in Year 2. Training & professional development for SFC's project team; SFC staff attend a Local Sourcing Cohort to build knowledge and capacity for developing the local sourcing component of Double Up Texas grocery retail programs. Promotoras received Trauma-Informed Service training. Team members attended numerous virtual demos and trainings on Point-of-Sale systems, held by both the National Grocers Association Foundation and POS providers. Training & capacity building provided to regional lead partners; SFC recruited a new partner, Desert Spoon Food Hub, to serve the role of regional lead for the Del Norte/El Paso area (Region 10). In addition to general nutrition incentive training, the Promotora team visited Desert Spoon to conduct a train-the-trainers workshop. Trainings on the Promotora Model of Community Engagement were provided to the other regional leads, Blue Zones Project Fort-Worth (BZP), North Texas/Dallas Fort-Worth lead (Region 3) and Brownsville Wellness Coalition (BWC), Rio Grande Valley lead (Region 11). BZP also received training on best practices for SNAP at Farmers Markets from the Texas Center for Local Food. Throughout the first project year, SFC provided training and technical assistance to BZP and BWC for the recruitment and on-boarding of new program firms. Training & capacity building provided to implementing partner firms by SFC or Regional Leads; SFC's team began work on a Farmers' Market program toolkit and vendor re-education process which was piloted at two farmers markets in Lubbock. Newly developed, on-demand, virtual trainings for program reporting were distributed to new and existing farm-direct firms to support the process of data collection and metrics reporting. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During this project period, we launched a DUFB Texas Dashboard on the Double Up Texas website. The dashboard compiles six years of data about our Double Up network which allows us, current and potential partners to understand our impact at a glance. This dashboard is updated quarterly and continually iterated upon to improve its utility. We provided the first iteration of Farm-direct Biannual Reports for existing partners. These show each partner's key metrics, along with visualizations, to help them get excited about making progress towards their goals and provide their data in a form that is easy to customize and share with their stakeholders and funders. For BZP's network, results and outcome metrics are disseminated via Community Partner Data Reports, Quarterly Meetings with partners, and Texas Health Resource's Data Dashboards. Several presentations and info sessions were conducted for a number of stakeholder groups and events, including the Texas SNAP-Ed Community Partner Network, Texas SNAP Retailers Quarterly Meeting, Childrens Heath Working Group via Tarrant County Food Policy Council, the South Plains Hunger Solutions Coalition, Southern Families Farmers and Food Systems Conference, and Texas State University. Similar dissemination of impact and on-going objectives were shared during the DUFB West Texas Regional Convening hosted SFC in Lubbock, and the DUFB Dallas Partner Convening hosted by BZP in Dallas. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Progress towards the project goals did not meet expectations during the first year. However, key insights, skills, and knowledge were gained by both the SFC project team and Regional Lead partners. Through the investments made in capacity building, Double Up Texas network is poised to meet planned goals and objectives in Year 2. Efforts in Year 2 will focus heavily on broad program expansion. In preparation for this, SFC staff have been developing a revised on-boarding process, program tools, and replication materials to improve the efficiency and accessibility of Double Up programming for Farm-direct firms. The collection of Annual Farm-direct Partner Surveys over the summer of 2023 is providing key information for this strategy. Results from the Annual Farm-Direct Partner Survey will provide key input for the design and development of a comprehensive Double Up Texas Toolkit. The toolkit is to be made available via a Partner Portal on the Double Up Texas website in late September. The toolkit is section by the target audience (participants, farm-direct firms, grocery retailers, and programmatic staff), and will include refreshed operational tools and process manuals, on-demand training videos, a suite of marketing material templates and social media kits, and best practice guides for program growth. SFC will lead a targeted Farm-Direct firm recruitment campaign using a newly developed Expansion Decision Matrix. The tool utilizes various data points, including county demographic data, census tract level Low-Income/Low-Access data, and a number of other factors relevant to the successful implementation of the program to guide recruitment priorities. The Toolkit will then support new firms throughout their on-boarding, initial launch, and on-going implementation of the program. Several grocery retail partners are already in the on-boarding process and plan to launch the program early on in Year 2. One such partner is a Texas based retail chain that primarily serves rural communities throughout East and South Texas. A pilot at two stores is planned for the fall of 2023 with expansion to several additional stores at the start of 2024. Learning and development of POS solutions strategies will continue in effort to further the network of B&M firm types, such as cornerstones and bodegas. To increase the number of SNAP households reached and DUFB incentives redeemed, BZP is hiring 2 Promotoras in September to help focus outreach efforts and further reach target audiences. Promotoras will be tasked with facilitating outreach activities onsite at participating markets, as well as community meetings and events within targeted areas. Additionally, the hiring of Promotoras will allow BZP to efficiently partner with existing organizations who work with or target SNAP beneficiaries to cross-promote and collaborate. A Rio Grande Valley Regional Convening will held in Brownsville in late October, and a North Texas/DFW Regional Convening will be held in Fort Worth in the Spring of 2024. Other SFC led food systems projects, not funded under the GusNIP, will sync with this program expansion effort. A Value Chains project will support the scaling of the Local Sourcing Component through retailer and distributor matchmaking. The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre will begin offering cooking and nutrition education classes to DU participants in Lubbock and West Texas region.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables for SNAP households by expanding grocery retail and farm-direct program sites to communities with low access to fresh nutritious foods. Under this goal, Double Up Food Bucks Texas expanded to a total of 18 new firms across the state. This includes 7 Brick & Mortar Grocery Retail firms and 12 Farm-direct Retail firms. A variety of retail types comprised the new Brick & Mortar firms including small, single lane independent retailers (2), non-profit grocery retail (1), large 'big-box,' retail (1), and an emergent firm type we call "Hybrid Brick & Mortar Firms," (3) which are owned and operated by farmers or ranchers exclusively selling locally produced products at a brick & mortar retail outlet. The locations of the new B&M firms included the metro areas of Austin, Houston, Dallas, El Paso, and Amarillo. The expansion of Farm-Direct firms reached across the state, from the Texas Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley and included 7 farmers markets, 3 mobile markets, and 2 farmstands. Sustainable Food Center led the expansion and on-boarding for most sites, but also supported our two subawardees in their efforts to on-board new program sites within their respective regions. The Brownsville Wellness Coalition, the regional lead for the Rio Grande Valley (Region 11), launched their own Fresco Mobile Market and supported program expansion to the McAllen Farmers Market. The Blue Zones Project Fort Worth, the regional lead for the North Texas/Dallas-fort Worth Region (Region 3) led program expansion to four farm-direct firms, while supporting several other FD firms in their efforts to become SNAP authorized so they may also begin offering the Double Up Food Bucks Texas program. Other locations with newly established firms includes Lubbock, Waco, Austin, Wichita Falls, and Lufkin where our first East Texas firm joined the program. Progress towards this goal did not reach intended targets of 20 new brick & mortar firms and 25 new farm-direct firms. However, in our efforts for outreach and recruitment of firms, new tools and processes were developed to help guide on-going expansion and partnership development during year two of this project. Goal 2:Increase the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables among SNAP households across Texas by providing $1-to-$1 matching incentives at participating GR and FD outlets. Under this goal, Double Up Food Bucks Texas reached an estimated 34,258 SNAP Households across the state, with 30,643 served at grocery retail locations and 3,615 served at farm-direct locations. The Year 1 target for this goal was 54,000 SNAP Households served, which we fell short of, mostly due to shortcomings in program expansion efforts. In addition to this, our largest grocery retail partner, United Supermarkets, paused their program operations during the first half of this project period, thereby significantly reducing the number of households served. In support of participation outreach and retention objectives, SFC's Double Up Help Desk expanded it's services to regions outside of Central Texas. The support services provided by the Promotoras who staff the Help Desk, reached participants and firms in West Texas (Regions 1 & 2), the Dallas-Forth Worth area (Region 3), El Paso (Region 10) and the Brownsville/McAllen area (Region 11). Each of these areas was assigned a member of Promotora team to serve as a Help Desk & Community Engagement Liaison. In this role, each Promotora provided on-going support to participants in their respective region via the Help Desk, while also maintaining consistent communications with regional leads regarding feedback from participants, updates to firm operations, and cross-referrals from other community partners. Promotora Liaisons also conducted in-person visits to their respective regions to provide hands on community engagement training to firms and partners. In Austin, two six-week cooking and nutrition education classes were conducted at a grocery retail firm, Wheatsville Food Co-op, in their community kitchen. From this, 90% of class participants reported increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and 100% of class participants reported an increase in nutrition knowledge. Outreach efforts also conducted cooking demos and/or recipe samplings at established farm-direct firms with a total of 78 conducted at mobile markets in Austin and 25 at farmers markets in Lubbock. Goal 3: Improve the economic well-being of Texas farmers through the increased purchase of Texas-grown produce among SNAP households. Under this goal, Double Up Food Bucks Texas achieved a total of $417,740 in SNAP incentive sales for fresh fruits and vegetables at grocery retail locations and another $84,238 in SNAP incentive sales for fresh, Texas-grown fruits and vegetables at farm-direct locations. This progress represents 26% of the $1.6 million target for grocery retail and 36% of the $237,154 target for farm-direct. Similar to goal 2, progress was limited due to shortcomings in program expansion efforts and the program pause at United Supermarkets. In addition to this, pandemic emergency allotments for SNAP ended in March 2023, thereby significantly reducing the monthly amount of SNAP funds for many households. Impacts of this varied across all firms, with some seeing up to 60% decreases in SNAP incentive sales while others saw little to no reduction. However, overall program growth in terms of SNAP incentive sales still trends upwards as marketing and outreach efforts expand and more firms are added to the network. The development of a local sourcing component to the grocery retail segment of Double Up Texas, made great headway. Without an existing standard model for this within the field of nutrition incentives, thus our project focused on building internal knowledge and capacity for further development of this emergent best practice. A system to track local produce procurement was piloted at the two Wheatsville Food Co-ops in Austin to establish an average monthly baseline and an annual growth benchmark. SFC provided technical assistance to connect the firm with additional producers and distributors. Further development of this project component is needed to improve validity and efficiency of data collection.
Publications
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