Archived: Success Story Evaluation Pilot

Storyteller: Elizabeth Roberts, Western Regional

Story time period: FFY18-current

A low-income neighborhood with a high population density located in Longview has created a new community garden initiative. The project began when a local resident identified a need for healthier food options and started a community garden. SNAP-Ed partnered with her to support this effort, leading to the establishment of a vibrant garden and several related projects.

In fiscal year 2022, SNAP-Ed helped secure a grant to hire a neighborhood resident as the garden manager. Although the grant only funded her position for one year, she continued to manage the garden on a volunteer basis, even recruiting and training additional volunteers independently. This summer WSU Extension was able to pay her with SNAP-Ed funds, with hopes of securing additional grant funding in the future.

A key outcome of the garden’s success is the development of a produce sharing pantry. This pantry not only distributes produce from the garden but also educates residents on growing their own food. The initiative has partnered with the Lower Columbia School Gardens program, which contributes produce throughout the summer, further enhancing the pantry’s offerings. Collectively, these efforts have provided thousands of pounds of produce to residents, who often face significant distances to the nearest grocery store.

The community garden and pantry have become integral to the neighborhood, creating a healthier environment and a stable resource for residents.

The community garden and pantry have become integral to the neighborhood, creating a healthier environment and a stable resource for residents. The project has grown into a well-known community hub, where children can access fresh snacks and participate in gardening activities. What began as a simple partnership has evolved into a sustainable and impactful community asset, supported by SNAP-Ed’s programs and activities.

Storyteller: Eileen Grigsby, Curriculum, Training, and Website (CTW) WSU Extension

Story time period: FFY22-23

Our team, CTW, has created a curriculum rubric decision tree. The rubric that was being used before was more focused on the content of each curriculum. It didn’t take into account community needs or what participants were looking for. It was a one size fits all type rubric. It also didn’t provide a place for providers to give feedback about how their curriculum was working in their communities. Its purpose was more just to select a curriculum and teach it; and that was the end of the conversation.

The idea for developing a new one came from the equity strategic plan, when it became apparent that the old rubric wasn’t aligning with our equity-lens. It didn’t incorporate participant voices at all about what they were looking for and what would be important for them in direct education. That was the catalyst. Then we worked with Leah’s pantry to organize focus groups on both the East and West side of Washington. They also held key informant interviews with providers and leadership about the rubric and direct education. They facilitated the focus group with participants or potential participants and got interesting information about what people would be looking for. They then helped us create the new rubric using that information they gathered. Leah’s Pantry is skilled in this area, but we also needed a third party to take the lead with that process so that the feedback we got was honest and accurate. Another reason we partnered with them is because they were also interested in a way to select and update curricula.

This new rubric provides a decision-making tree for providers to decide what curricula to use in their communities. It also helps Washington SNAP-Ed select curricula that are more aligned with our values. The new rubric provides a better opportunity for providers to give feedback, such as: how is the curriculum working, what are the challenges, what modifications worked well? It also lets them speak specifically about the community they’re working with, so other providers can see how to apply it to their community.

This has been a significant change because it serves as a constant reminder to look through the lens of participants’ lived experience and having that as a consideration in everything we do.

The new rubric was released around January 2023 and we’ve been working on getting providers to use it. We try to encourage people to fill out the rubric and submit to us. We haven’t gotten any submissions yet, but we’re curious how the rubric worked for them and how helpful it was in assessing the curricula they use. But I do think it better informed our approved curricula list, allowing us to better tailor that list to curricula that would benefit participants and providers.

This has been a significant change because it serves as a constant reminder to look through the lens of participants’ lived experience and having that as a consideration in everything we do. And all the activities leading up to this change, like developing the equity strategic plan, has helped pivot Washington SNAP-Ed into a direction that better serves participants across the state. For Leah’s Pantry, it gave them some perspective. They got lots of surprising and unexpected feedback that helped redirect their work. For example, thinking about how kids are selective in what they want to eat. They learned that it’s not just a choice and that there’s more than goes into making food decisions, like allergies or things you can’t eat. We uncovered a lot of assumptions we had about participants that were just off-base. The most surprising aspect of this project is having other states reaching out to us ask if they could use the updated rubric, or adapt it to make their own.

Storyteller: Kate Ortiz, Public Health Seattle King County (PHSKC)

Story time period: FFY22-current

Public Health – Seattle & King County is working with Sea Mar Community Health Centers in King County to implement food insecurity screenings. SNAP-Ed’s role in this work has been asking clinic staff and their leadership “how can I support your clinics in doing this work?” We’ve been able to support the ongoing growth and success of food insecurity screenings in a variety of ways. We’re involved in bi-weekly community of practice meetings that center on food insecurity screenings and referrals. We’ve assisted in grant writing to supplement food and gift card purchasing and we’ve connected clinics to local food pantries. However, our level of involvement is more as consultant; the clinics have really taken on the responsibility of this PSE work.

Food insecurity screenings gained momentum after Sea Mar’s White Center clinic started implementing the screenings regularly in FFY20-21. At the time, though there were no requirements to measure food insecurity, White Center health educators knew having consistent access to nutritious foods is important to overall well-being. But screening alone would not solve food access for patients. Once someone screened positively (meaning, they do have a level of food insecurity) what could clinic staff do? This is where SNAP-Ed came in and helped connect a local food pantry with clinic staff to establish an onsite food pantry. It was important to clinic staff that patients would not have to go somewhere else to access foods, and that food was available at the clinic. However, maintaining regular food delivery and stock takes a lot of communication and time. SNAP-Ed was able to provide funding for staff time to address this. After gathering feedback from clinic staff, we realized that what they needed was not necessarily funding of someone’s time, but funding that would allow purchasing of pre-paid gift cards or funds to directly buy food. Sea Mar staff identified private funding sources that had less requirements on funding use and SNAP-Ed helped write grants to receive these supplemental funds.

It was important to clinic staff that patients would not have to go somewhere else to access foods, and that food was available at the clinic.

Sea Mar leadership was able to see the successes of the White Center clinic’s pilot and recognized the importance of this work. When Sea Mar underwent a recent accreditation process, they wrote in food insecurity screenings as the mechanism for measuring and addressing health disparities amongst their patients. This was a huge shift because now all King County clinics were required to implement screenings. As of today, all seven clinics are implementing screenings to varying degrees and SNAP-Ed is working with them to help navigate their specific needs or barriers to implementation; with the goal of consistent screenings and post-screening workflows at all locations. Additionally, five of the seven locations have an established partnership with a local food pantry.

So that’s where we are now, scaling up the project and making sure it’s meeting the needs of all patients and clinic staff in King County. And there have been hurdles along the way, but what strikes me is the level of engagement and passion clinic staff have. They’re genuinely excited about this process and the prioritization of food as medicine.  We originally only had health educators doing screenings. Now more and more staff from different Sea Mar departments are being pulled into both screening and referral work. For example, once someone positively screens for food insecurity, they’re not only providing food from the onsite pantry and/or provided a gift card for purchasing foods – they’re also connected to a Sea Mar Community Service Representative who then provides patients information on additional qualifying resources like SNAP benefits. While SNAP-Ed helped establish this project and is now helping with expanding it, Sea Mar will eventually be able to sustainably continue this work with or without us present.

Storyteller: Samantha Cooper

Story time period: FFY24-current

As one of the few agencies in the state with both WIC and SNAP-Ed, we’re trying to find ways to bridge the two, which is best done in the PSE space. One of the bigger projects we’ve been working on is getting a lactation center opened at Tacoma General (TG) Hospital in Pierce County. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback, got the go-ahead from WIC and SNAP-Ed, and are now just working on getting MultiCare buy-in.

Unfortunately, in Tacoma, we’ve had several outpatient lactation centers recently close – MultiCare Virtual, Good Samaritan, Puyallup, and Tacoma outpatient lactation all closed. It left a huge gap in outpatient lactation services. Outside of private practice lactation and St. Joseph’s, there are no other lactation resources in the Tacoma area. MultiCare Virtual closing was really heartbreaking because it was really low barrier and free to WIC participants and low-income parents. The closings really made it so that lactation is no longer an equitable resource in our area. We’re really hoping to get buy-in from MultiCare so that we can address this gap by opening up this new lactation center at TG.

I’m personally very excited and invested in this project. I used to work in Austin, Texas and did some of my training in the WIC outpatient lactation center, called Mom’s Place. It was connected to our WIC clinic, was free for WIC and non-WIC participants, and was funded by a Maternal and Child Health grant as well as WIC. It was beautiful. We could bring parents right away if they had lactation problems and they could work with an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) right away. They had RN IBCLCs, standard IBCLCs, and peer counselors. They had a call center and five different locations across the state. In contrast to this well-organized system for supporting lactation, when I started at MultiCare WIC, I noticed right away that there wasn’t a peer counselor program. So as one of my first PSE projects here, I helped set up the peer counselor program. From there, my team and I started thinking about lactation services on a broader scale, and even though it felt like a reach with all these closures, the idea kept coming back in conversations and trainings.

One of the first steps we took in this project was to reach out to the director of WIC in Austin, because they have Mom’s Place and they are one of the biggest WIC agencies in Texas. We talked about how they got all these factors worked out, like how the funding was figured out and what the planning for it had been. We also talked to the director of the Houston WIC clinic which operates a

little differently from Mom’s Place. We learned a lot about the facilitators and barriers to this type of work and their perspective on the day-to-day running requirements.

Now that we’ve had these conversations with other organizations doing this work well and have planned out how this could work in Washington, we’ve moved to the next stage of the project. We just need to identify the key players at MultiCare so they can contribute to the funding. The plan is, instead of just reopening the outpatient lactation, we want WIC to take over and be the main site. We want it to be free to everyone. We also want to make it a training site, so that we’re helping to make the lactation community a more diverse space.

One of the things that happens if you’re an IBCLC but not an RN is you usually can’t get hired into hospital settings. There’s a very limited area of where you can work if you’re not an RN IBCLC. Another factor is that the majority of lactation counselors tend to be female, white, and middle-aged. Credentialing is a rigorous process. You have to have 1000 hours of supervised hands-on lactation time as part of the credentialing, as well as 13 college courses and 95 hours of lactation-specific education. A lot of people can get the last two, but then don’t have anyone to mentor them. A training site like this would help create a more equitable space and community of IBCLCs.

There are quite a few outcomes we’re hoping to achieve with this project. One would be increased initiation and duration of breastfeeding rates. It’s one of the Healthy People 2030 goals, which is trying to increase nationally both the breastfeeding initiation and exclusivity rates at six months of age. We’re also hoping to decrease some of the health disparities around breastfeeding. People in BIPOC communities, specifically in the Native Alaskan, Native American subgroup, and African American and Black subgroups, have lower breastfeeding rates, partly due to the IBCLC community being mostly white. We hope to address this by bringing in and training a more diverse group, as well as making it free for WIC and non-WIC people.

This whole work is significant because breastfeeding is the first thing we can do to level out chances for everyone… It’s a huge leveler in food security and health disparities in every community.

This whole work is significant because breastfeeding is the first thing we can do to level out chances for everyone. That’s on so many levels, because we know that if a child is breastfed, they have improved IQ rates, less health issues like obesity and type II diabetes, less food insecurity, which was felt very much during the formula shortage. For parents, they’re less likely to have cervical cancer, breast cancer, diabetes and there’s a weight loss component. It’s a huge leveler in food security and health disparities in every community. We know that babies need to eat, but it can be healing too. A lot of parents have experienced traumatic things and sometimes being able to take their bodies and use it in a way where they are bonding with their child is such a beautiful thing.

I am very passionate about this project and moving it forward. I was a WIC and SNAP baby growing up, and I have my degree now precisely because I had access to those services. I have an appreciation and perspective that services like this really do take some burden off the shoulders of a parent so they can focus on other things. So many people think these services are not for them, and I just hope we can get the message out that these services are so that everyone can thrive.

Storyteller: Angela Shields, WSU Extension

Story time period: FFY18-current

Back in 2018, SNAP-Ed had a general presence at Clark County Farmers Markets. We had a booth handing out resource materials, and doing tastings but we felt like we couldn’t identify if we were truly reaching our clients. Additionally, SNAP-Ed recognized the significant barriers for underserved populations that prevented them from attending and shopping at the market. These barriers include, but are not limited to, the costs of fruits and vegetables, transportation access, navigating the vendor currency exchange, and the various market and state benefits programs. The goal of this work, outside of increasing access to nourishing foods, has been to shift this accessibility paradigm by addressing equity and creating a market community that’s representative of our local population. While I wasn’t present for the original conversations, I believe the reason this project has been so successful is the passionate Farmers Market Programs and Partnerships Director, Stephanie.  It’s been her priority to infuse equity at the market, and we’re fortunate to have a strong partnership and aligned values.

In the first iteration of the market tour program, SNAP-Ed educators focused their efforts on recruiting SNAP clients for market tours using Eventbrite. During the tours, educators would inform clients on how to navigate the market and the complicated currency exchange system. This was to teach clients how to leverage the Market Match program to increase their fruit and vegetable budget. During this most recent market season (FFY23), we improved farmers market tours by developing a Farmers Market Ambassador program. The role of the ambassador(s) is to improve recruitment and participation in market tours and Market Match programs. A key aspect of the ambassador program is hiring ambassadors that are multilingual and typically share lived experiences or backgrounds similar to our target clientele. With these specific connections, ambassadors can recruit, access spaces, and develop trust in an authentic way. For example, Russian and Ukrainian refugees this past year were very cautious to engage with us or other government organizations.  Once we connected them, and other ESL participants, with an ambassador that spoke their language, almost instantaneously they saw our ambassadors as people they could trust. With the combined efforts of our ambassadors and SNAP-Ed educators, tour participants were able to learn about many resources and start to develop meaningful connections. 

A key aspect of the ambassador program is hiring ambassadors that are multilingual and typically share lived experiences or backgrounds similar to our target clientele. With these specific connections, ambassadors can recruit, access spaces, and develop trust in an authentic way.

This participatory approach is ultimately focused on community building. While it’s harder to measure the impact of this type of work, we’ve been able to gather some data through post-tour surveys, end of season surveys, and anecdotally that this program has been successful in a variety of ways. Surveys have shown that tour participation overwhelmingly increased the number of fruits and vegetables that folks were buying and consuming. Participants also note shopping at the market more frequently after learning how to supplement their budget with the market match program. Overall, we have found that tour participants were returning to the market to purchase nourishing foods and our markets started to feel more inclusive and accessible to a wider audience.

The challenging part of this project was identifying how to leverage social media to increase tour marketing. Some of the more common social media sites known to us, like Facebook or Instagram, didn’t make sense for our target populations. In fact, there were social media websites we were learning about for the first time from our ambassadors and clientele that we’re more culturally relevant. On the other hand, it’s not surprising that our local refugee populations either don’t have social media at all or don’t interact with location specific content for safety reasons. We also recognized that technology is inaccessible for some eligible people. With all this in mind, a lot of our recruitment is happening either through flyers that are thoughtfully placed throughout the community, by word of mouth by out ambassadors or those who have participated in tours before. These types of marketing considerations are critical to the success of farmers market tours. We’re doing all we can to recruit participation by learning from our audience.

In all, this work clearly aligns with our purpose and goals of reducing health disparities. We’re taking this academic concept of policy, systems, and environmental change and turning it into tangible implementation and impact. We continue to prioritize and center equity in our work by bringing on ambassadors who either have lived experience or skills working in community services. By hiring folks who speak Russian, Spanish, or Dari, we’re able to communicate with priority populations about the resources we’re able to share and connect them to additional resources that can help their families live more healthily. Farmers market ambassador tours have been fun, successful, and rewarding. This work has expanded our ability to build a more equitable and representative market environment and reduce barriers to healthy eating.

Storyteller: Jill Farrant, WSU Extension

Story time period: FFY23-24

The project I wanted to talk about today is our partnerships with two food banks- the Edmonds Food Bank and the Lynnwood Food Bank. We work closely with many food banks in the county- but these two are located in the most populated urban center of Snohomish County. It’s a partnership that’s been going for several years, but there have been some significant things that happened in the last fiscal year.

With the Edmonds food bank, the partnership developed in the year after the COVID-19 pandemic started. With the food banks having to shift their distribution model, the Edmonds food bank wanted to find ways to continue providing the same services. We developed a relationship with them, providing recipes for their website so people could still have access to recipe ideas even if they couldn’t attend demonstrations. Prior to this, we had been limited in the services we had provided at Edmonds food bank to just an occasional cooking demonstration. 

We had been working with The Lynnwood food bank for several years to help support them in providing more culturally relevant food options and the hope was that they could transition to a shopping model. Lynnwood area was also seeing a large number of Russian and Ukrainian shoppers and it was identified as a need for SNAP-Ed to hire aa Russian speaking educator, who could provide translation services for us and other programs outside the county.

This is when several opportunities met up.  The Edmonds Food bank operates several satellite locations, one of them being a distribution at the Latino Educational Training Institute (LETI) in Lynwood. The Educator we hired for the Russian and Ukrainian position also had worked with LETI in the past and had close ties with that organization.  Partnership with LETI was a great fit and with the assistance and educational support of Mariah, the Statewide Latinx coordinator, we’ve been working with them to provide cooking demonstrations, taught several classes, and most recently, creating a podcast for their nutrition-geared website that they’re building. We were fortunate that Brigitte, with our Skagit program, was available as a native Spanish Speaker to participate in that live broadcast. 

The needs that have been building and adapting over the years, we mainly identified through our educator, who has been going to all three food banks regularly for the past three years. Lots of conversation and relationship building happened just by being present so frequently. Edmonds food bank had also began the Leah’s Pantry nutrition program with us. They allowed us to come in and do an assessment of their food bank and identify additional needs they may have. This positioned us as someone they could turn to when they had questions related to food access within the broader community or when other opportunities arose.

They also wanted to provide cooking classes but didn’t have the facility space for it, so they reached out to a senior center and secured space for us to do cooking demonstrations for their senior clientele. We have monthly cooking demonstrations, which has shown to be a valuable resource. They get a full hour of cooking classes, which is longer than a cooking demonstration, and can learn how to cook with foods available at the food banks.  

This year (2024), we’ve been able to lean more into a community wide food banking PSE approach. We did a presentation for the Snohomish County Food Bank Coalition, and are now on their monthly calls as a partner where we can promote PSE for the whole county food bank system.

The biggest systems change we saw was with the local Edmonds Farmers market. There is just one Farmers market in the region and it is run by a non-profit historical society as a fundraiser. Community members and the food bank had been putting a lot of emphasis on wanting that market to accept EBT. So, we connected them to WSFMA, and met with local stakeholders and the farmers market to brainstorm ways to support the historical society. The Edmonds food bank lead the charge and agreed that they would serve as the location that takes the benefit, provide the manpower, apply for the EBT Reader, and the farmers market would allow them to be there and distribute the benefits. It got approved and went into effect last summer (2023), so the market can accept benefits this year. That then allows us to do tours so we can connect participants to the market and help improve access.

With all these changes, we’re able to shift some of our focus and staffing hours towards expanding the food bank/food access role. This year (2024), we’ve been able to lean more into a community wide food banking PSE approach. We did a presentation for the Snohomish County Food Bank Coalition, and are now on their monthly calls as a partner where we can promote PSE for the whole county food bank system. It’s been a great expansion and had really good results. For example, the food bank in Darrington took many of our recipes that we presented at the meetings and created a new page on their website dedicated to cooking tips and recipes. And of course, this summer, we’ll be able to work at the farmers market and provide nutrition education services and reinforce the changes made there. We weren’t sure if people would come to the market, but they had high redemption numbers, so there truly was a need for them to be accepting EBT SNAP benefits at the market.

The added impact has been on multiple levels. Talking with Irina the educator, and having her be there, representing our clients’ culture, has been helpful in developing relationships and making people feel comfortable in those spaces. Having a variety of recipes available in different languages, from different cultures, expands everyone’s ability to deal with mundane foods. Getting the same food every time from the food bank can become really tedious. It’s been wonderful to see people get excited for new recipes each week and for the new foods they get to taste. It’s also just having people feel safe and supported regardless of their situation, and we expanded that to the community. When the farmers market wasn’t accepting EBT, it was a signaling that low-income people were not wanted. So being able to offer that, it’s a way to open that door, and say that you really are wanted here and we really do accept everyone and want everyone to access nutritious fresh produce. It’s amazing to see people using the benefit there. They’re really excited for us to be there this summer with the tours, and help people figure out they can go there with WIC and EBT. It’s a benefit to the community overall becoming a more inclusive environment for everyone. It’s been a shift for us; we’ve done PSE at food banks for years, and it’s been focused on system changes at one place, but we realized the need is not as centered on an organizational level anymore. It’s the process we’re in right now, figuring out the most effective interventions and how we can make the most out of our limited time.

Storytellers: Allie Moore, WSU Extension Statewide Retail Support in collaboration with Kristen Rezabek, San Juan County health and Community Services

Story time period: FFY2020-current

Two programs that have been impactful in SNAP-Ed-supported Retail and Food Access work have been the food access debit card programs. There’s one from WSU Whatcom Extension SNAP-Ed called Whatcom Grown Local Foods Card and one with San Juan Health & Community Services SNAP-Ed called Island Grown Food Access Card. The two programs utilize community funds to support low-income people receiving additional food dollars to buy locally grown and produced foods and stretch their food budget. Whatcom Grown is in its first pilot phase, so I’ll focus on Island Grown for this story. The Island Grown Card, which was started in 2020 and has been running for four years now, has increased the purchasing and consumption of local seasonal food for disadvantaged clients, and provided economic opportunities for local farmers.

The San Juan Islands have unique barriers being geographically isolated and dependent on unreliable ferry service for inter-island and mainland transportation. The desire was to support food access and keep more dollars invested in our local economy with our local agricultural producers, many of them low-income clients. The Island Grown project was developed to extend food access dollars to SNAP-eligible families, in addition to the SNAP Produce match program which is only now beginning to be offered on the island (SNAP Market Match has been offered for a number of years now on Orcas and San Juan Island used to offer but with changes in their market manager they lost the program and are struggling to get their EBT sales up to requalify). The partners involved in making this work were the San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild, San Juan County Health and Community Services SNAP-Ed, San Juan Island Food Hub, Peace Health, Soroptimists of Friday Harbor, and the different farm stands/farm vendors.

The food access card program was targeted at those 200% or below the FPL and outreach was done with the Health Department, Food Banks, and local Resource Centers to connect with clients. You sign up using a Google form, where you sign an affidavit of eligibility, that income was below 200% of the poverty level. Local donors have money to go through the agricultural guild, which is the fiscal sponsor. To start, the program used a Stripe debit card preloaded with $150. Unfortunately due to changes within Stripe’s user agreements Island Grown had to pivot to a new gift card platform called Yiftee and the program was relaunched in August 2024 with now three options allowing clients to receive either a $150 Yiftee gift card to spend at 12 local Farm stands, $150 Food Hub gift certificate, or a $150 CSA style good food bag that clients picked up weekly in September with locally grown produce, dairy, and meat products.

The most impactful thing that came out of this program is the time saved for people, especially stretching already limited resources. It decreased logistical stress for participants, which made it possible for them to enjoy and participate in their local food economy and community more.

One major accomplishment is that there was a significant amount of money invested back into the community. Waldron Island which is not served by the ferry system and requires people to shop via private boat now has two farm stands accepting the Island Grown Food card which made a big difference in expanding food access in a very local and focused approach for their low-income population.  

As of September 2024, in San Juan County over 170 households with 348 individuals have been served by the Island Grown program. Over $28K has been spent thus far using the hybrid debit at over 36 vendors in the County. The most impactful thing that came out of this program is the time saved for people, especially stretching already limited resources. It decreased logistical stress for participants, which made it possible for them to enjoy and participate in their local food economy and community more. And for both the participants and retailers, being able to contribute to building their economy is a win-win. Island Grown Food Access Card program participants surveyed reported increased consumption of produce, ease of use with the card to purchase products, and more client choice on where to shop and spend the benefits. Vendors reported increased efficiencies with the utilization of the card and less administrative burden.

Island Grown serves as a model of how to streamline food access program funding, provide clients choices on where to shop and foods to buy, support local farms, and keep more dollars invested in our local economy.

Storyteller: Claudia Abramson

Story time period: FFY2023-current

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to use a drive-up model to distribute food to clients. Coming out of the pandemic, we were faced with the decision of how to distribute food once people started coming back inside the building. We had a model before that was stressful, congested, and not conducive to our clients’ desire to make their own choices. Although it was considered more dignifying than the previous model where people receive prepared bags, the volume increased rapidly to where it became necessary to have several lines. It got congested, which then created a lot of tension, and felt authoritarian at times because it needed a lot more volunteers to monitor each line and keep things moving. We saw this period of time, coming out of the pandemic, as an opportunity to completely reshape the shopping experience at the food bank.

On the days we didn’t have food distribution service, the volunteer coordinator, a couple of client services people, and I would have lunch together. We started talking about our lives, what we’re doing, and how we’re serving people. We discussed whether we should even go back inside, since we had perfected the drive-up model so much and become so efficient. However, we realized the drive-up method is really not a choice model. We started exploring different ideas to allow for more choice and decision-making for clients. We did walk-throughs where we staged the items and looked for where our eyes were immediately drawn to. We looked at where the windows are that would let more light in and shine on the food nearby, compared to the dark areas that might get neglected. We thought about what the best place for different items would be. For example, we decided to put the baby items that are highly desirable in a niche area close to the entrance so that they could be easily found by a client walking in the door, but not compromise the attention towards the main produce section. A lot of it boiled down to practicality, like where the outlets are, but shaped through the lens of making it the best shopping experience for our clients. We all individually drew out our visions and ideas and saw how similar they were, and then voted on which ideas to implement. We had to determine which stations needed more volunteers, like the freezer section where we couldn’t have the doors being opened constantly, or the canned goods section which would get bogged down with people searching through the goods. Our top considerations were how to get people to take home the healthiest food we have and use it.

To our surprise, there was considerable pushback from upper management who had the expectation that we would just go back to the way it was before where we would bring in 60 people, have clients zig-zag through a que, until they got to the front. Clients had limited choices and the set up made it so they couldn’t go back if they wanted to grab something else. It created tension and frustration. People were jammed together, and we experienced so many escalations. It meant we needed lots of volunteers to operate. So to make changes, we really had to fight for it. We finally got permission to try this new model for six weeks. If it wasn’t a huge success, we would have to go back to the old model. We didn’t know what to expect, because it was so incredibly different. But thankfully, clients really appreciated the changes.

Anything we can do to turn down the tension levels will be supportive of our clients making better choices and feeling like they have time to shop and cook.

The new model really functions like a true grocery store- you aren’t required to go to every station, you’re free to revisit a station, you don’t have to wait behind anyone. The shopping floor is designed in a circle to highlight produce, whole grains, and dairy. Clients are brought inside in groups of 5-6 people so they don’t feel rushed. We encourage clients to take enough produce for a week, but they’re free to take as much as they need. We’ve only had to make minor revisions to that policy due to limited supply of desirable items, for example.  In this model, the only limitation is that you get two full visits and four supplemental visits a month, where the supplemental doesn’t include dry goods or protein.

We’re also able to do a lot more now. We finally got back to doing food demos, but with its own area. Before, we didn’t have a designated space and it would interrupt the shopping process. We work with local growers to provide specific kinds of produce that are popular or unusual to showcase. We have an agricultural department at the food bank, and we work with the committee to help them market these things. We have identification sheets to help clients learn about new items and how to incorporate them. 

After this new model was implemented, the most visible thing about it is how different the building felt and how comfortable everyone felt. It really impacts the choices people make when they’re shopping. Shoppers that shop rushed and stressed also eat rushed and stressed, so they’re grabbing convenience items instead of taking raw ingredients and doing scratch cooking at home. Anything we can do to turn down the tension levels will be supportive of our clients making better choices and feeling like they have time to shop and cook. What’s been particularly unexpected is the kids’ reaction to these changes. Now they can experience shopping along with their parents in a stress-free environment, try new food, and ask questions about the produce. Anytime we’re able to change a child’s perception towards food and reduce their chance of developing trauma related to food, it’s a good day. This change has really allowed the SNAP-Ed staff to interact with clients and offer indirect education without feeling intrusive and like an afterthought. We get to know the folks that come in and have great relationships with so many of them. The staff and volunteers also feel safe and comfortable and respected, and they can do their job more successfully. So, at the end of the six weeks and up through today, we can say, yes, this change was a success.

Storyteller: Carly Simpson, Common Threads

Story time period: FFY23

Last year was the first year providing summer meals from our food truck through the USDAs summer food service program. We provided meals at 6 rural sites in Whatcom County. For a variety of staffing and funding reasons, the public school district was unable to provide summers meals for a few years in a row, so we saw a gap in food access for these parts of the county. The primary purpose of the food truck is to provide free and nourishing meals to kids in hard-to-reach times and places. While the meals themselves are not SNAP-Ed funded or eligible we’re working a lot with SNAP-Ed eligible communities and kids when we’re serving from the food truck. In the summer of 2023, we were able to provide roughly 1,500 meals to these rural communities from the food truck.

Because Whatcom is so large and has many rural areas, the mobility of a food truck made the most sense in lieu of brick and mortar sites. We did some additional informal needs assessment work to gather information from local non-profits, families, and schools to identify sites to work at. Some of these sites that we ended up at, were familiar to us because we were already running cooking and gardening camps and activities. Other sites were a bit more challenging to identify as we wanted to make sure they were accessible and where children and families were already at during the summer months.

The most successful sites were those at public libraries and a housing community center. The community center location at Glenhaven Lakes made it so kids could walk right on over from where they live to access the food truck. Similarly, we coordinated with story time at the library, when it was most common for families to already be in attendance and easily access the food truck. Another consideration that was helpful for the success of summer meals last summer was coordinating with other services. For example, we parked at a site with a book mobile so families could access books and free meals. Another example was coordinating a time to be somewhere at the same time as the youth mobile vaccination program. In the future we also hope to partner and promote even more services like summer EBT and match programs.

It was really important that we could provide these meals in a way that was fun, yet felt normal. We attempted to destigmatize free meals by having a customized truck that looks like any other one; something bright, colorful, and inviting.

In terms of eligibility and how we operated the food truck, anyone under 18 was eligible for the free summer meals, but adults were not covered. However, kids come with adults and their families. It became clear and important to us to include everyone in receiving meals; especially because the community and families act as role models. We had to be a bit creative and pull in additional funding to be able to provide meals to adults and ask for donations (that would support future food purchasing).

The most tangible difference made through implementation of the food truck was the amount of meals we were able to provide. Beyond that, it was really important that we could provide these meals in a way that was fun, yet felt normal. We attempted to destigmatize free meals by having a customized truck that looks like any other one; something bright, colorful, and inviting. In fact, we had some folks who just showed up at the truck not realizing it’s intended purpose and provided meals to those community members through suggested donations. Kids that visited were able to choose from familiar and unfamiliar foods, to ultimately encourage adventurous eating and choice.

This summer, 2024, there’s been some changes to the USDAs regulations where we can now provide non-congregate meals. Meaning, that families can take several meals home from the food truck. Because of these changes, moving forward the food truck is slated to become more of a tasting mobile with the idea that kids will have the opportunity to taste a variety of fresh local ingredients and recipes and take home meals to enjoy with their families.

Storyteller: Tricia Heimer, WSU Extension

Story time period: FFY18-current (story focuses on the revitalization of this work in FFY23)

The impetus for this work starts many years ago with SNAP-Ed, but it really has been pushed forward by the current food service director, Melissa. Before COVID we were doing monthly community steering committee meetings and had a partnership with a local health department that also had SNAP-Ed funding. Then with COVID, partnerships were lost, and those meetings stopped. However, sort of by fate, the staff member at the health department was already doing harvest of the month work in Oak Harbor schools and had built relationships with the food services personnel. For a variety of reasons, the health department had to take a step back and say, ‘we can’t manage this grant anymore.’ Over the next few years, the district food service director changed (to Melissa) and she took it upon herself to try continuing the harvest of the month work. During the 2022-23 academic year, she had less bandwidth and couldn’t continue. However, she made it a goal for this work to happen in this academic year (2023-24).

At the end of 2023, we had already had a partnership formed between us (SNAP-Ed) and the Whidbey Island Conservation District and together we approached Melissa and said, ‘hey, can we assist and/or support some of these activities you’re doing? Can we meet?’ Ultimately, in that process of reaching out and renewing communication, SNAP-Ed was able to provide kitchen equipment and training focused on scratch cooking at the local low-income schools in the district through some extra SNAP-Ed funding availability at the state level.

Prior to Melissa, the food service was contracted through a different company, and while we got lots of smiles and nods from them, it felt like they just didn’t want to cooperate or work with us. When Melissa came on, there was only one elementary school with a full-service kitchen, and in working with us she’s been able to gradually expand equipment. She’s also been able to train her staff on how to use new equipment and has them participate in taste testing of local food and recipes as well. She really takes the guidelines of USDA funds and makes it a palatable, fun, and enjoyable experience for her students. Her motivation and dedication to food sourcing and capacity building is the biggest change and surprising result of this work. She’s investing in relationships and infrastructure. She’s taken it upon herself to source food in the neighboring county as well, since the island itself does not produce enough food to support it’s nearly 6,000 students.

This work has been successful because of the renewed lines of communication with the Oak Harbor School District food service personnel, who are very motivated and dedicated to local foods sourcing.

The impact of Harvest of the Month goes beyond just low-income qualifying schools. If foods and recipes get positive taste testing feedback from the elementary students, they get added to the district menu. A great menu example is roasted chickpeas. Back when we were helping with Harvest of the Month (pre-COVID), roasted chickpeas garnered good feedback and were added as a menu item. Now I’ve seen chickpeas being incorporated into afterschool activities and salad bars. So not only do they get added to the menu at the qualifying elementary schools, but the foods get incorporated district wide. This outcome is significant because the impact goes beyond just schools that are SNAP-Ed eligible. It’s increasing student’s palates by providing a wider range of foods they can try and choose to eat while at school. Overall, this work has been successful because of the renewed lines of communication with the Oak Harbor School District food service personnel, who are very motivated and dedicated to local foods sourcing. It feels like there’s lots of opportunity on the horizon that we, SNAP-Ed, can help bring to fruition.

Storyteller: Margaret Viebrock, WSU Extension

Story time period: FFY22-current

We’ve developed a wonderful partnership with Community Action. They’re the agency with the mobile market and they take it to a variety of locations. When we connected with them, they shared that it can be difficult to get people to come to the market because they didn’t have the relationships or “in’s” that we have. For example, we have established relationships with schools that have a high free and reduced-price lunch (FRPL) rate. Community Action was excited to partner with us because they had not yet been able to connect with local schools. However, we wanted to ensure the partnership is mutually beneficial. While Community Action was trying to reach the populations we work with, we also needed to ensure that the foods and recipes that were being shared were healthy. And as a result, after the first mobile market event they called us up and asked when we’d be able to do another one.

So over the past year we carried out five mobile market days last year at three different schools. There were many ways we, SNAP-Ed, promoted the days the mobile market would be at the schools. We were able to coordinate with the school(s), as their able to send out messages to families electronically for specific students. We also sent out paper flyers we hoped would get into parents’ hands and had teachers promote via word of mouth. All materials or messaging we had was translated in English and Spanish as there is a large Hispanic population in these schools. 

Before the mobile market events, we would choose seasonally appropriate recipes like hearty soups in the fall and salads in the spring to share. We would then provide those recipes with Community Action and ask them to have the recipe ingredients available at the market; and even have them bundled if possible. As folks would line up, they’d stop at our table first and we offered samples of that day’s recipe, provide them a recipe card (again, in English and Spanish) and we’d share a copy of ChopChop magazine that has kids cooking activities. It was also a great opportunity for us to share with families the SNAP-Ed activities we were doing with students at the school – either direct education or PSE work.

The nature of this being a mobile market, we’re providing food access in places where these individuals were already going to, familiar with, and comfortable at.

After connecting with us, folks would go into the mobile market where they have the choice of either picking up the ingredients for the recipe we’re highlighting that day and/or additional foods for their families. One thing we’ve noticed is how generous Community Action’s Mobile Market is. Just from observation, families could probably cook four to five meals with the foods that they were receiving from the mobile market. They provided frozen meats, breads, canned goods, and a large variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Additionally, the nature of this being a mobile market, we’re providing food access in places where these individuals were already going to, familiar with, and comfortable at.

Turn out of these mobile market days was fairly large. Attendance was upwards of 60-80 individuals and families. One of the days it was snowing and we still had 60 or more people come. We also noticed that just because it was promoted at the school and for student’s families, it wasn’t uncommon for grandma to tag along and get food as well, meaning we were reaching other eligible individuals that we didn’t anticipate.

We do plan on continuing this work and partnerships, and what’s exciting is how scalable this model is. We’ve got many schools in our counties that qualify and could benefit from the mobile market. One of the current barriers we face is just staff time since it is a lot of work to coordinate with the schools, Community Action, and prepare materials. However, between initial attendance, repeated attendance, student comments to SNAP-Ed educators and the enthusiasm of Community Action and school staff members, we’d call this a successful partnership and project.

Storyteller: Meike VanDonge, WSU Extension

Story time period: FFY23-current

A PSE project I’m really excited about is the one we started in the spring of FFY23 in Prosser (Benton County) where we are working with a group of community members to get a garden established and farm to school programming. In Benton and Franklin counties, we’ve noticed that rural communities are extra excited and appreciative to work with us, but on top of that, there’s also a great need. The school district is 91% free and reduced meals and other than Second Harvest, there aren’t other providers in that area. This project is a result of all the partnerships we’ve built in that area. But it’s unique because we’re going into it with the community fully guiding the vision and goals. 

To get started, I contacted the Prosser School District food service director to see if they’d be interested in general PSE work in cafeterias or school gardens. She immediately said they’d love the support with school garden work and local procurement. She already had ideas and plans for the work they were interested in and had buy-in with school partners and community. She was excited about all her ideas, but didn’t have the time to pause her work, get partners together, write grants, etc. From there, it grew very fast because some of the puzzle pieces were already figured out.

Once things got started, the food service director invited the FFA teachers, maintenance, and the Boys and Girls Club to join. There were also questions about wellness, so the school nurse got involved. We, SNAP-Ed, were willing to support with grant writing, which got even more partners interested, like the assistant superintendent and individual schools. We set up an informal walk through of a new garden site for all these partners and talked about their dreams for the space and how much they could contribute. Those kinds of discussions led to more partners getting involved, collaborating, and having ownership. With so many people now involved, we established a garden committee who clearly defined goals.

These garden activities can also help kids foster connections that help with their social-emotional wellbeing. Not to mention it’s a benefit to have access to local fresh produce for their meals. 

This PSE work involves multiple gardens at different sites, and the garden at Prosser is a unique situation. For example, the Boys and Girls Club has a garden space already and we helped them expand a little. We brought kids in to do garden club activities where we teach them about composting, about good bugs to have in the garden, and how to plant and harvest. The kids can explore what changes throughout the garden, and then we work on brainstorming ways to solve problems and prioritize things they want to do. Eventually, we will break ground on a new garden site which the Boys and Girls Club received a grant to build and maintain. The FFA teachers will do activities with students in the garden and use food from the garden for summer meals and for families to take home.

There have already been so many benefits from this garden and partnerships work. We’re giving kids ownership of the space, getting their hands in the dirt. It gets them excited about gardening and learning where their food comes from. They’re learning about the complexity of foods, getting to try new produce items, which you see more when kids are involved in it. These garden activities can also help kids foster connections that help with their social-emotional wellbeing. Not to mention it’s a benefit to have access to local fresh produce for their meals. 

Down the road, we all hope to expand this work and have it opened up as a community space, for families to have their walks or go to after work and school. Extra produce can go to food banks, which will be meaningful to provide for the rest of the community that may not have kids, seniors, and others experiencing food insecurity.

While we’ve already helped with grant writing, garden activities and partnership work, moving forward we’ll be helping this group apply for other grants, local procurement, so now we can help with scratch cooking. We’ll also be helping with training the site coordinator on harvesting from the garden to help with the sustainability of this work. We’ve gotten things into their district that they didn’t have capacity for before. It’s fostering a closer community, helping each other write grants and letters of support.

This work will lead very easily and naturally to doing garden-related projects in other areas. This is our first time doing something like this, so we can use it as a blueprint for future projects. Sometimes PSE work can be hard to get started, especially at this scale. I’ve had some trouble getting PSE work going, but this one has been really exciting to see it unfold. It’s also exciting to see how it can be applied to other areas, even if it’s virtually.