Program doubles SNAP benefits on fruits, veggies in San Antonio
Venessa Garcia did her usual grocery run on Thursday.
She purchased two packs of strawberries, two packs of raspberries and one container of blueberries, two stalks of celery, three bunches of cilantro, grapes, four apples, asparagus, two avocados, three pears, bell peppers and a handful of serrano peppers.
What would’ve cost her more than $70 totaled $22 and change at the register.
“I buy [this] two times a month, so [the savings] adds up to $100 a month. I notice it comes in handy with my extra gas money,” Garcia said at her grocery cart inside the store. “And if I save from this, it goes to another bill.”
Garcia saved $50 on her groceries through the national Double Up Food Bucks Program, a state-operated effort that doubles Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits dollar-for-dollar when buying fruits and vegetables.
The program expanded to San Antonio in April, and is only available at the Chicho Boys Fruit Market.
The program, funded by the USDA, doesn’t require enrollment and discounts don’t need to be requested at the cashier. The half-off discounts automatically apply when a customer swipes their benefit card.
At Chicho Boys produce markets around town, the Healthy Rewards program gives anyone (even those who don’t have SNAP benefits) a 50% discount on fruits and veggies purchases worth more than $10, without requiring food benefit.
It also benefits local producers, said Jamie Gonzalez-Stevens, community engagement and development coordinator for Chicho Boys and president of the Food Policy Council of San Antonio.
Since the program was implemented, Gonzalez-Stevens said the store has seen a 19% increase in EBT sales, a good sign that food stamp holders are buying more fruits and veggies.
For customers, especially seniors on a budget, “it stretches their dollars and … creates access to quality food,” Gonzalez-Stevens said.
Gonzalez-Stevens said the program is important, especially in a city like San Antonio, where 17.6% of residents live in poverty, and 14% of people and one in four children are food insecure. She added that consuming fruits and vegetables can help decrease the risk of chronic diseases.
In San Antonio, 16.2% of households receive SNAP benefits.
Inside Chicho Boys, at least five people were shopping across the store Thursday morning. The deals of the day included a head of romaine lettuce for ninety-nine cents, $1.99 for a pound of grapes and 6 ounces of raspberries for $3.99.
Anna Macak, health program manager for the Metropolitan Health District’s Healthy Neighborhoods Program — a community health worker program that develops community projects to address disparities — said Metro Health partnered with the Austin-based Sustainable Food Center to bring the Double Up Food Bucks program to San Antonio.
“In other places, there are grocery retailers, there are farmer’s markets using Double Up Food Bucks, but Chicho Boys is our first,” Macak said.
She said Metro Health is evaluating how the program is working in San Antonio, with the potential to expand it this summer. However, she said she’s not sure the program could expand into local big box retailers, like H-E-B or Walmart.
“In other places, there are grocery retailers, there are farmers markets offering Double Up Food Bucks, so it has a huge potential,” Macak said, adding the program could expand into the city’s Healthy Corner Stores network, which lists 45 convenience stores and markets as places to get fruits and vegetables.
Metro Health Director Claude Jacob on Thursday updated the city’s Community Health Committee on the plan to develop a Healthy Food Access Roadmap, which started as a council consideration request led by former District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval and District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez to address food disparities and access to foods.
Jacob told committee members that the Double Up Food Bucks Program is one way to reach Metro Health’s goal of decreasing food insecurity by from 14.5% to 10% in Bexar County by 2030.
He also briefed the committee on more initiatives by the city to address food insecurity, like surveys, establishing a food insecurity workshop and identifying metrics and solutions.
He also shared plans for a $60,000 Urban Farm Pilot Project, which will issue leases to three urban farmers on city-owned vacant lots. Some lots have been identified so far, and next steps include finalizing agreements with those farmers to expand food access.
McKee-Rodriguez told the committee that he appreciates Metro Health’s work to address food insecurity, but added that Thursday’s briefing wasn’t quite what he envisioned.
“The intention [was] to create something not unlike the strategic housing implementation plan that identifies clear gaps and strategies to close those gaps … by a certain period of time in order to meet that need,” he said.
McKee-Rodriguez said there are still opportunities to identify creative solutions, like incubators for local food gardens to operate as grocery stores.
“We’re already a portion of the way there … but what I don’t want to see and what I worry is that … it’s a patchwork of solutions,” he said. “The conversation that’s not happening is, ‘H-E-B, when are you going to use some of the land in the city to build up? When are you going to create grocery stores’ — Walmart, all the grocers.”
“What I would like to see come out of this committee would be directions back to identify what would it cost to create a plan to address food insecurity completely eradicated,” he said.
The Sustainable Food Center and H-E-B did not respond to requests for information.
