Families who buy California produce with federal food stamps will win a lottery of sorts, thanks to a new program that pays bonuses of up to $10 a day for buying local foods and is offered in one Gilroy supermarket.
Called the Double Up Food Bucks Program, the pilot project benefits families participating in CalFresh so they can bring home more local fresh fruits and vegetables.
For each dollar a person spends on California-grown produce using their CalFresh EBT card, they earn a dollar to spend on any fruits and vegetables. Capped at $10 a day, the bonus dollars can then be spent in the same store at any future shopping trip.
“A lot of people have little money to spend due to the high cost of living in the region,” said Lupe Lopez, owner of Arteaga’s Super Save Market at 6906 Chestnut Street in the South Valley Plaza Shopping Center, one of three supermarkets in the county and the only one in Gilroy participating in the grant-funded pilot program. The other participating markets are Arteaga’s Food Center and Food Bowl 99, both in San Jose.
“People lost their homes, rents went up and now a lot of people are spending 50 percent of their income on rent. Ten dollars may not be much to some people but for others it is a lot. It means more food for their kids,” she said.
Cynthia McCown, vice president of community engagement and policy at the Second Harvest Food Bank for Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties said the program provides customers with more money to purchase fresh produce at a place where they’re already shopping.
“The more seamlessly we can help families access the healthy food they need, particularly in a place where they’re already shopping, the more effective we’ll be at addressing hunger in our communities.”
More than a quarter of a million people in the region rely on Second Harvest for food every month, said McCown. Half are children and seniors.
Proprietor of both the participating Arteaga markets, Lopez said getting the program up and running took some work. A programmer had to modify their POS (Point of Sale) system to identify California-grown produce and track the number of people using and generating the bonus bucks.
But, for the businesswoman who has a history of community service, participating in the program was a no-brainer.
“Your community is as good as the work you put into it,” said Lopez. The grocer, who owns seven supermarkets in the Bay Area and Lodi, funds scholarships, supports various charities, and in 2009 received an award from Produce Business magazine for their one-day Fruit and Veggie Fest promotion and health fair, which drew more than 2,000 people to the store.
The Double Up Food Bucks Program budget was raised from a mix of sources, including $300,000 from the USDA’s Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive grant program as well as another $150,000 from a mix of grants from FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, The Health Trust, and the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation.
Lopez and program partners hope to see positive results in the initial months so they could secure additional funding to continue and potentially expand the pilot.
“This project is an outstanding example of how public and private organizations can partner to have deeper impacts in our communities,” said McCown. “This program has the potential to scale to more grocery stores beyond this initial pilot so that we can have a broader impact—not just in our own community, but across the state of California.”
For Lopez, the Double Up Food Bucks Program not only helps low-income families eat healthier and supports California farmers, but has the potential to cut down expensive healthcare costs in the future.
“I hope the USDA sees the value of the program and how much it could help the California economy,” said Lopez. “A little investment now can save the state big money in the long run in healthcare costs.”
For more information go to: http://www.doubleupca.org
