When customers use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to buy food at any of Eden Valley Farm’s farmers market booths, market manager Isaac Livingood makes sure to let them know they’re eligible for a new benefit under the decades-old subsidized food program.
The SNAP Produce Bonus Program — which launched Aug. 1 in Colorado with help from a $7.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — reimburses SNAP participants for up to $60 worth of healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables and dried beans per month, on top of their normal food assistance.
Although the benefit is new, as many as 15 customers per day are already using the program to buy healthier foods at Eden Valley Farm’s locations, meaning business has increased by about 10% for the organization since the initiative launched, Livingood said.
“The way I think this is helping them most is that if someone was going to use their SNAP benefits for a small purchase because they thought their SNAP balance was low, I tell them they have this extra $60 per month to use, and then they make a larger purchase because now they don’t feel as limited by how much they can afford to spend,” Livingood said.
The produce program makes it cheaper and more motivating for SNAP participants to buy foods that improve their health and nutrition. It will also allow them to spend more of their SNAP money on other items, at a time when food insecurity is on the rise in Colorado and inflation is making it harder for people with lower incomes to buy organic fruits and vegetables, several people interviewed for this story said.
Colorado is one of three states, including Louisiana and Washington, chosen to pilot the healthy incentive project.
When participants buy eligible fresh produce items, they are issued a credit equal to what they spent on their SNAP benefits card.
SNAP participants do not need to sign up to participate. They are credited up to $20 per transaction at participating locations, which will grow in number during the coming months, said Abby McClelland, food and energy assistance division director at the Colorado Department of Human Services.
“This is the first technological advance in administering rebates that we’ve seen and we’re really excited about it,” she said.
The produce program is not the first incentive project launched to increase healthy eating among SNAP participants.
The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 authorized and funded pilot projects to see if SNAP participants increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables when financial incentives were provided.
The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service used that funding to launch the Healthy Incentives Pilot. SNAP recipients who participated received 30 cents for every SNAP dollar they spent on certain fruits and vegetables.
About 55,000 Hampden County, Massachusetts, SNAP households that participated from November 2011 to December 2012 ate 26% more fruits and vegetables per day and reported spending more of their SNAP benefits on produce, according to the USDA.
“This pilot will test models run directly by states, which is expected to lower administrative costs, so more incentive dollars reach SNAP participants,” a USDA spokesperson wrote in an email to The Colorado Sun.
The new pilot incentive aims to reduce food insecurity among people with lower incomes. However, food insecurity affected most income groups statewide in 2023, according to the Colorado Health Institute’s most-recent Health Access Survey, indicating states should implement similar pilot programs to incentivize improved health among all residents.
The new pilot incentive aims to reduce food insecurity, which is increasing in Colorado, as the price of groceries climbs sharply, according to the survey.
“The rate of food insecurity jumped more than 3 percentage points since 2021 to 11.2% in 2023,” organization leaders wrote in a summary of their survey.
People working in ranching and farming communities are often not getting enough food to eat, the survey found.
The San Luis Valley, southeastern Colorado and Weld County had some of the highest rates of food insecurity, even though agriculture drives the economy in those areas. Denver, Pueblo and El Paso counties also had above-average rates of food insecurity, according to the survey.
Low incomes and lack of access to nutritious food are among the key barriers preventing people from eating healthy diets, according to the USDA.
This pilot program is happening while the people who administer and utilize SNAP are concerned about overall access to fresh fruits and vegetables. SNAP recipients, who struggle to afford food and don’t have access to grocery stores nearby or transportation to get there, may still struggle to receive fresh produce, even under this new incentive program.
To help, the produce program allows participants to use the benefit at farmers markets and farm stands, which are more prevalent in rural areas where it can be hard to access fresh food, McClelland said.
For example, there is only one retailer participating in the pilot program in some parts of Colorado that would likely see high demand for the incentive program.
Carniceria La Sabrocita in Fort Morgan is the only participating retailer on the Eastern Plains, Valley Roots Food Hub in Mosca is the organization participating in the San Luis Valley and Ela Family Farms’ stand at South Pearl Street Farmers Market is the only Denver participant.
“We are actively working to add new locations,” John Rosa, a spokesperson for the Human Services department, wrote in an email.
Green Junction Farmstead is the only farmers market participating in the pilot program in Mesa County, where there are 20,732 people using SNAP.
The state human services department sent more than 68,500 postcards this month to SNAP recipients in areas where retailers are participating.
Dawn Adams, owner and operator at Green Junction Farmstead, suspects she will struggle to meet demand in an area with few options for fresh food. Her farm is only open Saturdays for a few hours and she has few employees and volunteers at her 200-square-foot market, which has a small parking lot for customers and only an acre and a half of land in Clifton for growing food.
“I don’t want to let people down,” Adams said. “We’ll figure it out as we go and I’ll feed all the people that we can. But I want to get more stores involved.”
Adams reached out to leaders at Nourish Colorado, which is helping to encourage them to invite other nearby stores that accept SNAP to join the initiative, she said. Pilot program leaders are creating material for Adams to pass on to other local organizations.
“I have a lot of contacts, food-wise, in this town that I could easily get signed up to be part of this program, so that we don’t miss out on future opportunities here on the Western Slope if this program isn’t successful here,” Adams said.
“We have a terrible, terrible food system in this country and that’s why I’m so passionate about making sure these families are introduced to and educated about eating healthier.”
Laural Bates, who lives in Loveland, has been using SNAP benefits for more than two years. It pays for about half of her food each month.
Bates has used the new produce program for about two months, buying fresh produce at Eden Valley Farm in Loveland, where Livingood works.
The program allows Bates to buy organic fruits and vegetables, products she could not afford to purchase from grocery stores before the initiative.
“I try to utilize the program as much as I can because this is healthier,” she said. “Food is just so expensive now.”
Nicky Martens, who lives in Fort Collins, said she appreciates that the program helps communities by allowing people to eat quality local produce that in turn supports the people growing it at small businesses.
“It’s a fantastic program and I hope it stays,” she said.
It’s unclear how long the pilot program will last.
Rosa at the Human Services department said the program will likely run through the end of September 2027 but grant funding could possibly dry up sooner.