By Laura Coffee, Marketing & Owner Services Manager, Co-op Owner
On August 1st GreenTree Cooperative Grocery became one of only 56 Michigan retailers authorized to participate in the Double Up Food Bucks program.
This exciting program is designed to help improve Michigan families’ access to healthy foods, to provide income for local farmers, and to keep more food dollars in the local economy, strengthening our community.
When a shopper purchases fresh Michigan-grown produce at GreenTree with an EBT or ‘Bridge” card, they receive a coupon for the same amount, up to $20 per day. As soon as the next day, they can come in with the coupon and redeem it on any fresh produce in the store, local or otherwise. This means the shopper gets double the produce for their money! Because the coupons are created when local produce is purchased, the program also generates additional income for Michigan farmers.
We’re very excited to be a part of this program, especially since so few Michigan retailers were invited to participate. It helps us expand access to fresh healthy food and support Michigan farmers at the same time – that’s a pretty amazing opportunity!
The offer runs from August 1st through December 31st of 2016. This program is also available at many Michigan Farmer’s Markets. You can find a complete list of participating Double Up Food bucks locations here.
Megan,
The best person to contact would be our General Manager, Sarah Christensen. You can reach her at sarah@greentree.coop, or by calling the store at 989-772-3221.
Thank you for reaching out to us!
Good Morning!
I am contacting you because we, at the Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council in Asheville, North Carolina, are running a pilot of the Double Up Food Bucks program in two regional locations beginning April 1st 2017. One of our sites is a food co-op, so we are looking to speak with somebody about the logistics of running DUFB in a co-op. We are looking for answers to questions like,
How were POS adjustments made and how timely/costly were they?
How have sales improved since you began running the DUFB program?
Do customers use tokens, loyalty cards, coupons, etc to redeem DUFBs?
Do you have any general advice or comments about your site’s experience with the program?
And so on.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could please respond with the best person to contact for further information on how you run DUFB in your food cooperative! Thank you very much.
Regards,
Megan Cadwallader
University of North Carolina Asheville
Asheville/Buncombe Food Policy Council Intern
(650)759-2385