Optimizing Nutrition Incentive Programs
This report documents the work that Mass Farmers Markets conducted in fall of 2021 to understand barriers that shoppers encountered in fully using their SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets. In Massachusetts in general, and Cambridge in particular, the HIP and SNAP Match programs are ways for shoppers to maximize their SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets that are not available at other retail outlets that accept SNAP. These programs increase low-income shoppers’ access to fresh produce, and it is well established that healthier eating is linked to increased longevity and fewer chronic diseases. Research has shown that HIP is not used by all SNAP recipients Farmers’ market staff report that SNAP customers are not aware of the benefits that are available to them, or are unclear on how these benefits work. This means that these benefits go unused. In order to increase the use of these benefits, Mass Farmers Markets will be creating simple guides to explain these benefits. MFM will distribute these guides through its network of farmers’ markets and to community organizations. The current work is the information gathering stage of the project, where we worked with SNAP customers to understand their use of SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets and the barriers or pain points that they encountered.
This report summarizes that work.
Section one describes the methods used and presents the data for each: a one-minute survey distributed at farmers’ markets and 10-minute interviews conducted at the Central Square Farmers Market in Cambridge, Mass.
Section two presents suggestions for what materials should contain, and summarizes themes found through the research.
Section three suggests next steps.
The appendixes contains the survey and interview instruments, survey results, and notes from the interviews.