EBT Tech Bytes: Device Category Overview

FMC presents Tech Bytes: quick sessions covering topics on technology, especially pertaining to EBT.

Our first session provides a brief scan of the three categories of point-of-sale devices: wired, wireless, and mobile, as well as discusses the emergence of loyalty card systems that may eventually help markets replace token-based models. For a downloadable PDF with content from this presentation, look at the slides or read further on the EBT Device Category Overview.

If you’d like to share your market’s device or insights, please reach out to Katie@farmersmarketcoalition.org.

EBT Point of Sale Device: Categories Overview

EBT Point of Sale Device Category Overview

This document will help you familiarize yourself with the categories of devices available – wired, wireless, and mobile, and help you start your search for the right device based on your cellular connectivity needs. This list is not exhaustive, nor is it a recommendation – these devices are examples of what we see commonly occurring in the Market and Farm Stand community.

Please refer to our Market Discovery Process to dive deeper into factors that may influence your technology choice. If you are seeking free or low cost EBT equipment, there are a couple of options. First, several states offer Free Wireless EBT Equipment to eligible markets and farmers — refer to our nationwide state-by-state guide for more information on what your state’s program offers. Marketlink also offers free equipment for eligible markets and farmers, and more information can be found here. Remember, choosing the technology that works for your market before looking at cost as a sole decision factor is vital to your market’s EBT program.

If you’d like to share your market’s device or insights, please reach out to Katie@farmersmarketcoalition.org.

Seven Common Mistakes Markets Make When Choosing EBT Technology

Seven Common Mistakes Markets Make when Choosing EBT Technology

Farmers markets around the country have been moving towards accepting additional currencies like SNAP benefits in order to make farm-direct food accessible to all shoppers. However, the nature of farmers markets and federal nutrition benefit programs requires that market operators have special equipment – EBT devices – in order to accept these benefits efficiently.

Many farmers market operators pick an EBT point of sale device without knowing exactly what challenges to prepare for. By now, market managers across the country have learned a lot of lessons the hard way — as a community, sharing this collective wisdom can prevent costly mistakes from affecting your market’s operations and finances on the road to implementing a food access program. This list isn’t comprehensive, nor in any particular order, but it does identify some common issues that we’ve seen market operators struggle with over the years.

EBT Technology: Market Discovery Process

EBT Technology: Your Market’s Discovery Process

Your process in choosing a Third Party Processor (TPP, or sometimes referred to as a “Merchant Service Provider”) and device (whether it’s a tablet or a payment terminal) to process EBT can be tricky and depends on a wide range of factors. At worst, rushing into the wrong agreement may create huge problems down the road. Understanding your model’s specific needs are crucial for this process for choosing the right Third Party Processor and corresponding device. 

This document includes a list of questions intended to jumpstart your thinking on specific EBT technology needs at your market or on your farm — it’s best used in conjunction with real feedback from farmers and market operators who use particular devices, or have faced similar challenges. Reach out to technical assistance providers in your area, email katie@farmersmarketcoalition.org, or share questions through FMC’s listserv for specifics. 

The Origins of Incentives: Incentivizing Behavior Change through the Farmers Market Model

The Farmers Market Coalition is proud to offer our first practitioner paper, “The Origins of Incentives,” by Richard McCarthy. Through the lens of Market Umbrella, the New Orleans farmers market network, McCarthy lays out a history of incentive programs in farm direct. This paper outlines the ways in which the rise in EBT technology was both a barrier and a spur to innovation as markets sought to remain accessible to shoppers across all incomes. As GusNIP once again changes the landscape of incentives, McCarthy suggests that as nimble, community-focused organizations, farmers markets retain the mandate to develop and pilot new program strategies in the field.

Match the Market: Adapting Nutrition Incentives to Various Food Outlets

Meet the Presenters

Farmers Market Coalition and National Grocers Association TA Center in partnership with the Nutrition Incentive Hub have teamed up to present Match the Market: Adapting Nutrition Incentives to Various Food Outlets.

Nutrition incentive programs, which offer a “buy one get one” model to encourage customers to purchase more fruits and vegetables, have grown in popularity over the years. Although they originated in farmers markets, today nutrition incentives have expanded to reach several food outlets, including farm stands, CSAs, co-ops, and grocery stores. Throughout this expansion, administrators have discovered that there is no “one size fits all” approach.

This webinar will discuss how nutrition incentive practitioners can adapt and shift their programs to meet the unique needs of different types of food outlets. Statewide and regional organizations that expanded their nutrition incentive program from farm direct outlets to brick and mortar outlets (or vice versa) will discuss their rationale for this shift and how they adapted their program accordingly.  They will share the lessons they learned along the way, including tips on marketing, capacity support, and outlet funding requirements.

Attendees will learn:

• Important considerations when shifting an existing nutrition incentive model to a new type of food outlet
• The challenges faced when making the expansion between farm direct and brick and mortar outlets
• The benefits of running incentive programs in both farm direct and brick and mortar outlets

Whether your organization is already preparing to implement a nutrition incentive program in a new type of outlet, or you’re simply interested in learning about the difference between how incentive programs work at farm direct and brick and mortar sites, this webinar will offer you insight into how you can successfully match the market.

Click the image below for the recording of the webinar

Access presentation slides here
Webinar Q and A

Thinking Inside the Box – Making Healthy Food Accessible with Curbside/Drive-Thru (Contactless) Models at Farmers Markets During COVID-19

Presenters

Farmers Market Leaders! Remember when everyone was talking about alternative delivery models and how to reduce contact at farmers markets? Let’s bring that conversation back!

Are you interested in learning to operate a curbside/drive-thru (contactless) model at your market? COVID-19 has impacted almost every aspect of farmers’ market operations. From wearing masks to social distancing, keeping shoppers and vendors safe has created new opportunities for innovation.

“Box programs” or curbside/drive-thru models have popped up across the nation to provide small and mid-sized farmers with an additional opportunity to sell their products and continuing to elevate farmers markets and make healthy food accessible to communities.

Largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers market customers – including those in COVID-19 high-risk groups – are looking for lower-touch options.

In this webinar, market operators using this model will present on:

How to run a curbside/drive-thru (contactless) model in a farmers’ market, including offering SNAP/EBT payment and nutrition incentives (the match provided on SNAP benefits).

Participants will also get knowledge on best practices for:
Logistics and operations
Securing funding and staffing/volunteers
Compliance with COVID-19 health and safety guidelines

Attendees will leave this webinar feeling inspired and supported to run your own box program, or with a better understanding of how viable the program may be for your market.

Click the image below for the recording of the webinar.

Access presentation slides here.
Webinar Q&A
Min: 09:55 Land Acknowledgement/ Essential Workers Acknowledgement
Min: 18:00 About the Nutrition Hub
Min: 19:30 Presenter line-up
Min: 20:40 Presenter #1, Cristina Berthelot, Crescent City Farmers Market, New Orleans, LA
Min: 35:32 Presenter #2, Angie Warkentin, Visalia Farmers Marker Åssociation, Visalia, CA
Min: 51:48 Presenter #3, Megan Kenney, North Coast Growers Åssociation, Arcata, CA
Min: 1:06:05 Presenter #4, Ruth Arhelger, Rochester Farmers Market, Rochester, MN
Min: 1:18:37 Presenter Q and A

Online SNAP Basics: Nutrition Incentive Hub and NGAF Technical Assistance Center Webinar

Webinar Recording

Online SNAP Basics Slides

Online SNAP FAQ

Strength in Numbers: Leveraging Data and Technology for Nutrition Incentive Programs

Presenter: Alysa Moore: Wholesome Wave Georgia

Do you want to use data to impress funders and show the impact of your region’s nutrition incentive program? Maybe you love the IDEA of data but don’t have an excess amount of time, effort, and money to pour into new data management systems. 

Collecting, storing, and analyzing quality data for nutrition incentive programs is a daunting initiative for many organizations, especially organizations that lack the time, money, and people power to do it well. Data doesn’t have to be intimidating! 

In this webinar, attendees will learn how one small nonprofit approaches data management using low-cost technology that simplifies collection and analysis of nutrition incentive program data. 

Wholesome Wave Georgia (WWG) is a small nonprofit that has been administering nutrition incentive programs in Georgia since 2009. In this webinar, WWG’s Program Manager, Alysa Moore will share how they’ve transitioned nutrition incentive data collection from cumbersome spreadsheets to an online, user-friendly database. Their use of new, low-cost software and tools has simplified program management and reporting for their small staff and the farmers markets, farms, and grocery outlets they work with. Learn how your organization can do the same. 

Attendees will learn why there is a need to move beyond spreadsheets, what tools and databases may be useful to program administrators and questions to ask when looking at data management solutions. Alysa will also walk through examples of how WWG uses Salesforce to manage data for several of their programs.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar.

Presentations and Q&A can be found here:

• FMC and Hub Introduction
• Main Presentation
• Q&A

Growing Your Grassroots: Employing Local Community Leaders for SNAP & Incentive Outreach

Presenter: Food Navigator and Fresh Link Ambassador programs

Interested in engaging community members with outreach, promotion, and education for your market’s nutrition incentive program? Experts will present on two different community outreach programs: FreshLink Ambassadors and Food Navigators that employ community members to spread the word about how to access fresh, healthy, locally grown food. 

FreshLink

FreshLink Ambassadors is a peer-to-peer marketing and outreach approach to spread the word about farmers’ markets to support the use of SNAP and nutrition incentives. Developed and evaluated through community-engaged research at Case Western Reserve University, Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio, the FreshLink Ambassador approach leverages social connections, trustworthiness, and capacity of community champions who raise awareness about and build social connections to farmers’ markets located in their neighborhoods. The FreshLink Ambassador Technical Assistance team now seeks to share learnings with individuals, organizations and communities interested in implementing this approach in their local context.  

Participants in this webinar can expect the following:

• Learn more about the core components of the FreshLink Ambassador approach.
• Understand the impact FreshLink Ambassadors has on individuals, communities, and farmers’ markets.
• Hear testimonials from a former FreshLink Ambassador and Farmers’ Market Manager about their experiences and the benefits of this peer-to-peer outreach approach.

Food Navigators

The Michigan Farmers Market Association in collaboration with the Michigan Fitness Foundation created the Food Navigator program which operates in farmers markets that accept food assistance benefits and are located in underserved communities. Food Navigators work to increase access to fresh, affordable food and help shoppers eat healthy.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar.

Presentations and FAQ can be found here:

• FMC and Hub Introduction
• Main Presentation- Food Navigator
• Main Presentation- Freshlink Ambassador
• Q&A