![\"Michigan\"](\"https:\/\/fairfoodnetwork.org\/2022impact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/07\/Michigan.png\" "\\"Michigan\\"")
\n\tMichigan<\/p>\n\t
Double Up Food Bucks in Michigan continues to respond to increased community need for the program since 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t
The importance of our Double Up Food Bucks nutrition incentive program, which matches SNAP benefits spent on fruits and vegetables, has never been more apparent than in the last three years. Due to pandemic-related demand, increased emergency SNAP benefits, and record inflation that hit grocery budgets particularly hard-program usage in Michigan doubled<\/i>. A challenge for Double Up-and one we’re still contending with-is how to meet this elevated demand and broaden access while ensuring that individuals and families are getting the most out of the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To this end, and to sustain Double Up for the long term, we made the difficult decision to pause Double Up earning at grocery stores across the state (excluding Flint) from August 1, 2022 through January 15, 2023. The temporary pause on earnings did not apply to farm stands or farmers markets, and all program participants were still able to spend what they earned from previous purchases.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The temporary pause was successful in its aim to slow the flow of spending, allowing us to significantly bridge the Double Up budget gap with this measure alone. In 2023, Fair Food Network and Double Up have emerged from the pause and transitioned into more conventional program earning and spending. And we recognize the impact the pause has had on Double Up participants.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Temporarily pausing Double Up has been a method we’ve used in the past to ensure the program is available for years to come,” said Cassidy Strome, Acting Director of Michigan Double Up Food Bucks. “But pausing the program invariably leads to confusion and challenge for both participants and site staff, and we obviously would prefer that the program operate uninterrupted year-round,” she added. “We’ve implemented some program changes in 2023 that we can adjust as needed, based on feedback from participants and sites, as well as our budgetary outlook.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
To curb spending as needed while avoiding future program pauses, we have introduced levers in program implementation, such as a cap on individual earning (decreased from $20\/day to $10\/day), a cap on individual spending ($10\/day), and a defined window (90 days) in which users can spend their earnings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
These new mechanisms will allow us to adjust spending without necessitating future pauses. Nevertheless, we recognize that keeping up with demand for Double Up Food Bucks will require sustained and increased funding for the program. Our work over the past year conveying funding needs to state officials in advance of budget negotiations paid off in June, when Michigan legislators announced funding for Double Up Food Bucks totalling $4.9 million through 2024. This latest funding from the State will help Fair Food Network maintain programming at our current Double Up sites, with the potential to restore the daily earning limit of $20\/day and remove the daily spending cap.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Our consistent engagement with shoppers, farmers, grocers, market managers – all critical program partners – has allowed us to ground our program changes in data and feedback from program participants,” said Strome. “Ultimately, our goal is to make it as easy as possible for SNAP users and site staff to use Double Up Food Bucks.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Highlight Evolving Our Program to Meet Community Need with Double Up Food Bucks Michigan Michigan Double Up Food Bucks in Michigan continues to respond to increased community need for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition-incentives"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n