Southern California Nutrition Incentive Program

The University of California San Diego (UCSD) Center for Community Health, in collaboration with Northgate Gonzalez Markets and its regional partners, will implement a Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive program in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties - the Southern California Nutrition Incentive Program (SCNIP). This program will develop, implement and evaluate a multi-tiered model that will enable low-income, SNAP-eligible consumers to make healthier food choices and purchase more fruits and vegetables. This model will include: tier 1) an innovative fruit and vegetable financial incentive rebate program that utilizes the consumer's Northgate Gonzalez Market customer loyalty card, electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card, and electronic wallet (e-wallet); tier 2) fruit and vegetable promotions that include discount pricing; and tier 3) SNAP-Ed programming (e.g., in-store cooking classes, tours, and healthy food self-labeling system) to educate and support the purchasing behaviors of SNAP-eligible families. Through the use of the customer loyalty card, EBT card, and e-wallet, the rebate program will be able to track the purchase of SCNIP eligible fruits and vegetables and provide a rebate at the point-of-sale that can be used to purchase additional fruits and vegetables, thus increasing the purchasing power of SNAP-eligible families for healthy food options. Earned and dispensed rebate dollars will be stored on the e-wallet enabling the tracking of purchasing behaviors and dollars spent on healthy fruits and vegetables in this program. With this data, we will be able to determine what level of financial incentive rebate ($10/month, $20/month, or $40/month) (tier 1) optimally increased SNAP families' per capita spending on fruits and vegetables in conjunction with the fruit and vegetable promotions (tier 2) and nutrition education activities (tier 3).