How Southern Nevada is Bringing More to the Table: Using PHIG to Increase Access to Fruits & Veggies
Success StoriesFind out how the Southern Nevada Health District is making it easier for their community
members to put more fruits and veggies on the table! Dr. Todd Nicholson, Workforce
Director of the Southern Nevada Health District, shares how his agency used Public Health
Infrastructure Grant funding to expand their Double Up Food Bucks program, which allows
SNAP users to receive extra funding for fruits and vegetables. Initially, the program had only
two outlets for a large population, but it has now expanded into a third market to reach
more people, especially those in underserved communities. PHIG has also made it possible
for Todd and his team to train grocery stories and other food markets on how to implement
the program, with plans for further expansion into more areas of Clark County.
Video Transcript
How Have You Been Able to Use PHIG Funding?
So in the Southern Nevada, we have a supplemental Nutrition Assistance program called SNAP. With
that, PHIG has provided a secondary impact program called the Double Up Food Bucks. When people
come in and use their SNAP, they can get additional funding to get fresh fruits and vegetables for our
communities that are being underserved nutritionally.
What does training and expansion look like?
So when we first started the PHIG in the Double Up Food Bucks program, we had two outlets for 2.2
million people – that’s really not enough. This year we expanded into a third market. Really, the
significance of expanding into a third market is that they are the only organization within a six mile
radius of the neighborhood that will offer the Double Up Food Bucks program. So as we’re reaching
out to our community, we’re starting to impact those pockets within the community that are less served and are not readily available by the bigger market. So by having that additional program,
we’re able to service more people that are in need of these fresh fruits and vegetables.
Because the program is a unique program, the PHIG also provides us funding for our team to go out
and train the organization that is co-sponsoring the Double Up Food Bucks program within their
organization. So we go out and we take the time to train the organizational staff on what the
program means, what the Double Up Food Bucks will do for them, how to take them, and then how
to then go back to PHIG within the health district so we can then reimburse them for this program. It
really is a big win-win within the community.
What’s Next?
More expansion, another market is what we’re looking for in the future. In December, we’re already
starting to identify potential places and underserved locations and pockets within Clark County,
which is over 8,000 square miles, where we can then put the Double Up Food Bucks program in with
the Supplement Mental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) so we can reach more people in the
future.