WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, stakeholder participants peppered government officials with questions over a new program that could potentially shower award recipients with as much as $31.5 million in new money. 

The webinar presentation was about the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) program, a new farm bill program. It’s directed at households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, otherwise known as food stamps. The idea is to encourage the consumption of more fruits and vegetables in those households. The program is designed to bring together “stakeholders from distinct parts of the food system and (foster) understanding of how they might improve the nutrition and health status” of those receiving SNAP assistance. 

“Too many struggling families do not have adequate access to nutritious food,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a Sept. 29 announcement. “Helping families purchase more fresh produce is clearly good for families’ health, helps contribute to lower health costs for the country and increases local food sales for family farmers. Public-private partnerships with non-profit organizations and other community groups are already proving to have great success across the country. These resources will allow partnerships like these to help even more families.”

As explained in the presentation Oct. 2, applicants may propose small pilot projects, medium-size multi-year community based projects, or large-scale multi-year projects. The pilot projects can receive funding not to exceed $100,000 over one year. The medium size projects can receive not more than $500,000, and the large-scale projects would receive at least $500,000 over a period of not more than four years.

The program will be administered through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), an arm of the USDA, as well as the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service. The idea is to test community-based approaches in order to find out how best to get SNAP recipients to buy more fruits and vegetables, specifically through incentives at the point of purchase and supported by so-called benefit redemption technologies. The ideas that are found to work the best will then be taken, expanded and used elsewhere.

Eligible entities include agricultural cooperatives, producer networks or associations, farmers markets as well as community supported agriculture (CSA) programs. Other eligible entities include emergency feeding organizations, public benefit corporations, economic development corporations, government agencies, buying clubs, SNAP authorized retailers and state, local, or tribal agencies.

All FINI projects must have the support of a state SNAP agency, must increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables by low-income consumers participating in SNAP by providing incentives at the point of purchase, and must operate through authorized SNAP retailers; and they must be in compliance with all SNAP rules. As with most government programs, there are a number of other conditions. The many rules and conditions can be viewed in full in the request for applications (RFA), a 40-page document available on the NIFA web page referenced below.

NIFA says it will favor proposals that have innovative or promising strategies in general. For example, those that develop innovative or improved benefit redemption systems, those that use “direct-to-consumer” sales marketing, and those that can demonstrate a track record of connecting agricultural producers with low income consumers have the best chance of being chosen. 

It is also looking for projects that provide culturally appropriate fruits and vegetables for the target audience and those that are located in underserved communities, especially Promise Zones and StrikeForce communities.

This solicitation for proposals combines funds for fiscal years 2014 and 2015; therefore, there will not be a solicitation next year. Applications are due Dec. 15. More information is available at NIFA’s FINI web page at www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/foodinsecuritynutritionincentive.cfm