Lincoln, Neb. \u2014The dollar doesn\u2019t stretch as far as it used to, a common saying goes. That\u2019s especially true when it comes to eating healthy. But the Hometown Market in Red Cloud is the latest Nebraska grocery store to make it a little easier to bring fresher, more nutritious foods to the\u00a0table.<\/p>\n
In October, owners Danny and Val Benge implemented the Double Up Food Bucks program. Led by the University of Nebraska\u2013Lincoln\u2019s Vanessa Wielenga, a certified nutrition specialist and extension educator with the Nebraska Regional Food Systems Initiative, the program matches dollar for dollar what customers spend on fresh fruits and vegetables, up to $20 per day. Funds are provided to customers eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or\u00a0SNAP, via coupons or a loyalty\u00a0card.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the main reasons we wanted to buy a business like this was to have an impact on the community,\u201d said Danny Benge, who purchased the market with his wife in 2018. \u201cObviously, the Double Up Food Bucks will be something that can do\u00a0that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Encouraging a healthier lifestyle is at the heart of the\u00a0program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are helping stores and farmers markets sell more of their healthiest items and really encouraging customers to spend money on those items,\u201d Wielenga\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2008 by the Fair Food Network in Michigan, Double Up Food Bucks came to Nebraska in\u00a02016.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a child at home who likes apples, essentially instead of getting five apples, you can get 10,\u201d Benge said. \u201cI hope that people take advantage of it, and they should, because it\u2019s basically free money and free\u00a0food.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a huge boon to those wishing to eat healthier, because, according to a study conducted by the Fair Food Network, the No. 1 barrier to eating healthy is\u00a0cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to call it a triple win,\u201d Wielenga said. \u201cCustomers get more fresh food on their tables for their families, we support local farmers, and we bring more customers to the\u00a0market.\u201d<\/p>\n
What began in only two locations in 2016 is now in 12 grocery stores and farmers markets across the state. Earlier this summer, both the Seward Farmer\u2019s Market on the Square and Kearney Area Farmers Market began offering Double Up Food Bucks to their\u00a0SNAP\u00a0customers.<\/p>\n
Double Up Food Bucks is also a nutrition education program. With taste-testing events and shared recipes, customers not only learn what to eat, but how to prepare foods. The events have been especially successful in stores that sell culturally specific foods targeted toward underserved\u00a0populations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now do nutrition education in the store,\u201d Wielenga said. \u201cWe\u2019ve created a whole new suite of materials that focus on Nebraska-grown\u00a0produce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clarissa Feldman, treasurer for the Kearney market, took nutrition education to heart this\u00a0year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did some food demos,\u201d she said. \u201cWe handed out quite a few coupons. We did some watermelon taste-testing so people could taste different varieties. We did some salads. And we tried to use everything we could from the farmers\u00a0market.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Double Up Food Bucks program recently received a $317,000 grant from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to expand into additional communities and\u00a0markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really like to focus on our local economies, making sure we\u2019re working with our local, independently owned grocery stores,\u201d Wielenga said. \u201cAgain, just increasing food security for everyone in the\u00a0community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benge knows that in rural Nebraska, it takes a community to raise a\u00a0community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to help people in the community,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to get rich off of it, so it\u2019s just another reason for people in the community to shop\u00a0local.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lincoln, Neb. \u2014The dollar doesn\u2019t stretch as far as it used to, a common saying goes. That\u2019s especially true when it comes to eating healthy. But the Hometown Market in Red Cloud is the latest Nebraska grocery store to make it a little easier to bring fresher, more nutritious foods to the\u00a0table. In October, owners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5184,5182,5180,5183,5181],"class_list":["post-41737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nebraska","tag-nebraska","tag-nebraska-dining","tag-nebraska-food","tag-nebraska-grocery-stores","tag-nebraska-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117377355155672387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}