Successful implementation of a nutrition incentive project takes a lot of internal work. In this IMPLEMENT section, we’ll help you set up the rules, training, and technologies that will make nutrition incentives run smoothly at your site.

Accepting SNAP and offering nutrition incentives are essential first steps to enabling an expanded community of shoppers to purchase food at your farm direct site. Now, let’s get to the behind the scenes work. 

Here we include everything that happens at the site—from staff and vendor training, to the selection of point of sale systems, to how to run on-farm or at-market events directed at nutrition incentive users, and even how to use signage to help people get the most out of your program when they arrive.

Whether you work with a broader local program or invent a new model for incentives in your area, there are many elements to implementing an NI project that can be adjusted and adapted to fit the needs and capacity of your farm direct site. You can use IMPLEMENT to navigate the many possibilities for how to operate your program day to day. 

For sites that are building an NI project from the ground up, however, implementation will involve more work and more decisions. 

For example, independent projects will need to create systems for payment and record-keeping. But you don’t have to start from scratch! Templates and tips from other farm direct sites are included in this section for you to build off of. Whether you’re a brand new program or joining an existing one, see below for our top resources.