The purpose of the evaluation was to understand experiences and satisfaction with the CalFresh Fruit & Vegetable EBT Pilot Project among Mother’s Nutritional Center retailers who were charged with making decisions about and/or carrying out the program in California using a standard implementation science framework.
The CalFresh Fruit & Vegetable EBT Pilot Project was one of the first programs of its kind to utilize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card as an incentive delivery mechanism, which could minimize implementation burden compared to other incentive delivery strategies (e.g., vouchers).
For questions or more information, please contact Graduate Research Assistant James Marriott at jmarriott@centerfornutrition.org.
Key recommendations to support the delivery and expansion of SNAP EBT nutrition incentive programs:
Leverage Funding Sources
Tailor Program Recruitment Strategies and Materials
Change Adaptable SNAP EBT Nutrition Incentive Program Components
Enhance Physical Layout and/or Add Equipment
Enhance Staffing
Provide Technical Assistance
Encourage Use of New and Existing Technology
University of California San Diego Center for Community Health (UCSD-CCH) led the development and implementation of the CalFresh Fruit & Vegetable EBT Pilot in partnership with Mother’s Nutritional Center (MNC) and California Department of Social Services to ensure it met the needs of the communities that we collectively serve. UCSD-CCH also brought together key partners to evaluate the retail implementation of the CalFresh Fruit & Vegetable EBT Pilot in MNC stores. Center for Nutrition & Health Impact personnel, in close collaboration with UCSD-CCH and MNC, led evaluation procedures, including survey instrument development, advisement on recruitment strategies, data analysis and interpretation, and report writing. MNC coordinated survey recruitment, and MNC management and staff who participated in a survey are acknowledged for providing key insights that made the evaluation successful.
Founded in 1987, the University of California San Diego Center for Community Health (UCSD-CCH) has over three decades of experience working with diverse communities to tackle complex health disparities at multiple levels. Their mission is to improve health outcomes and eliminate health inequities via interdisciplinary public health practice, research, education, and capacity building. They do this work by improving health equity, addressing food security and access to healthy foods, advancing health literacy, supporting resident leadership and capacity, empowering youth, building thriving refugee and immigrant communities, reducing health disparities and chronic diseases, advancing healthy policy, systems and environmental changes, and supporting the translation of scientific discoveries into improved health.
For nearly 30 years, Mother’s Nutritional Center (MNC) has specialized in serving the needs of low-income community members, particularly those participating in the USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) designed to safeguard the health of low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants, and children up to age 5 at nutritional risk. MNC has extensive experience supporting community members who utilize WIC, CalFresh, EBT and Pandemic EBT. MNC aims to elevate the traditional WIC shopping experience by offering unmatched personalized service and fresh and nutritious foods at competitive prices, including farm fresh fruits and vegetables, at stores located in low-income census tracts, including 79 grocery stores in 47 cities across San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.