Shoppers at Community Builders of Kansas City-owned Sun Fresh stores can now double their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dollars on fresh vegetables and fruit with the Double Up Food Bucks program. The program is easy to use and available at KC Sun Fresh on the Boulevard, 4209 E. 50th Terr., and KC Sun Fresh at Linwood, 3110 Wabash Ave., both in Kansas City, Missouri. Shoppers can use their SNAP EBT Card to buy fresh vegetables and fruit and earn one free Double Up Food Bucks for every dollar spent, up to $25 per day. Reward dollars can be used to buy additional fresh fruits or vegetables on a future visit to the same store. Users must have a rewards account to participate.
Laura Hohlbaugh, chief retail operations officer for CBKC Eats, CBKC’s subsidiary responsible for bringing healthy food to Kansas City’s urban areas, shared that the team is enthusiastic about what the program offers customers as well as the community.
“One of our KC Sun Fresh at Linwood team members owns and operates George Washington Carver Farm at 37th St. and Chestnut Ave. in the heart of Kansas City’s East Side, and both KC Sun Fresh stores are sourcing produce from it,” she said. “With this program, we are helping strengthen and support our community every way we can – supporting the local vendor who’s on our team while offering healthy options for less money to our guests.”
Double Up Food Bucks is a national program for anyone receiving SNAP benefits created by Fair Food Network, a nonprofit with the mission to grow community health and wealth through food. From farms to families, Double Bucks helps improve health, stimulate local economies and increase opportunities. The program was piloted in Detroit in 2009 before expanding across the country. Today it is offered in more than 25 states, including Kansas and Missouri, at more than 900 participating farmers markets, farm stands and grocery stores.
The program was brought to Kansas and Missouri by the Double Up Heartland Collaborative, a partnership comprising Cultivate Kansas City, Kansas State University Research and Extension, Mid-America Regional Council, West Central Missouri Community Action Agency, University of Missouri Extension and University of Kansas Medical Center. Over 1.1 million Kansas and Missouri residents rely on federal food assistance through the SNAP program, and Double Up Food Bucks makes it easier to eat fresh fruits and vegetables while supporting family farmers and growing local economies.
The Double Up Food Bucks – Heartland program began by offering a nutrition incentive program to SNAP customers at Kansas and Missouri farmers markets and grocery stores between 2016-2019 as part of a United States Department of Agriculture Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (USDA FINI) grant. Funding totaled a combined $5.8 million dollars from the USDA and private and public funders throughout the region. Nearly $2.5 million of incentives were redeemed by SNAP customers during that time.
After the first grant, Double Up Food Bucks was funded in Kansas and western Missouri by private and public funders for January-September 2020. Just under $360,000 of incentives were redeemed during the nine-month period.
Starting in October 2020, the program was again funded from the USDA FINI, renamed Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), grant and private match totaling $8.1 million that will last through 2024.
Today, Double Up Food Bucks is available at more than 80 locations in the bi-state area. The program’s success is rooted in partnerships – with the public, private and nonprofit funders, the statewide organizations who help extend its impact with outreach and complementary programming and the local markets who bring it to life in their communities.
“With the Double Up Food Bucks program, our families bring home more healthy food, our local farmers make additional money and increased food dollars stay in the local economy, all of which strengthens our communities,” said Hohlbaugh. “It really is a win-win program.”