Retailers should push technology providers to create solutions that would allow easier use of nutrition incentive programs that could boost fruit and vegetable consumption.
That is the message from the National Grocers Association and FMI-The Food Industry Association. The groups issued an open letter to food retailers, grocery wholesalers, national and state associations, and nutrition incentive program providers, asking them to join together in supporting a new initiative to collaborate with point-of sale-system developers in creating retail transaction and reporting solutions for nutrition incentive programs, according to a news release.
“We encourage all industry leaders to consider signing on to this call to action expressing your interest in the creation of industry-wide POS solutions for nutrition incentive transactions,” Ted Mason, project director for the NGA Foundation Technical Assistance Center, said in the release. “We hope our leaders will step up to help educate fellow retailers, wholesalers and POS developers about nutrition incentives and the need for industry-wide POS solutions for nutrition incentive transactions.”
Since the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, the release said federal nutrition incentive programs have been gaining in popularity across the U.S. The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) has allowed for the expansion of nutrition incentives and there has been an increased focus on programs for retailers to provide free or discounted produce to SNAP clients or low-income individuals with certain diagnosed health conditions.
However, the release said methodologies to conduct nutrition incentive transactions have often proved difficult and expensive to implement at the point of sale, which has slowed expansion of programs in more retail food stores, according to the release.
Common POS transaction capabilities are needed rather than thousands of inefficient one-off individual solutions, the groups said.
“We want to ensure that SNAP retailers can offer innovative services to all their customers, including redemption options for SNAP benefits, whether in store or online,” Hannah Walker, vice president of political affairs at FMI, said in the release. “It is essential that we continue to advance technology to support all our shoppers’ health and well-being goals.”
The federally funded National Grocers Association Foundation Technical Assistance Center, in collaboration with the Nutrition Incentive Hub , is working on the issue, according to the release.
