Business Respondents: Grantees and Administrators/ Retailers/Local Community Org. Staff

Appendix Y.2

Grantee Administrator Interview

Discussion Guide – English only

Grantee Telephone Interview Protocol

Overall goals:

• Understand grantee’s implementation approach to FINI projects.

• Determine grantee-level implementation challenges and strategies to overcome them.

• Identify process/protocol used by grantees to communicate with/monitor outlets.

1. Welcome and overview.

Hello, I’m [MODERATOR’S NAME] and I am the moderator for today’s discussion. Also with me is my colleague [NOTE TAKER’S NAME] who will be taking notes. I work for Avar Consulting, a research organization based in Rockville, MD. We are subcontractors to Westat, and a part of the Food and Nutrition Service of the United States Department of Agriculture contract team evaluating the implementation and outcome of FINI projects.

We want to talk with you about how you have implemented your FINI project and your experiences in implementing it. More specifically, I’ll be asking about how you selected the outlets to participate in the project, what kind of support the outlets requested from you, what guidance and support you provided to the outlets, challenges faced by you and the outlets in implementing the project, and what was done to address these challenges. We are also interested in understanding what worked well for you.

2. Disclosure and ground rules

Before we get started, there are a few things I would like to mention. This is a research project. Your participation is voluntary and you can choose not to answer any question. However, your contribution is important to creating an accurate picture of the FINI experience. Anything you share will not be attributed to your name in any material that is provided to USDA or publically distributed. Although we will list grantees by name as part of the final report, neither your name nor the name of your organization, will be identified or associated with any quotes or specific information provided in your interview. Again, USDA will not have access to what was said by individual grantees.

We will be recording this session, but you can opt to not be recorded, or ask to stop the recording at any point during the session. Finally, we have planned for this discussion to last no more than 90 minutes.

Do you have any questions before we start? ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS

Do I have your permission to record our discussion?

IF PERMISSION WAS GIVEN TO RECORD: I’d like to start the audio recording now.

TURN ON RECORDER: For the purposes of the recording, I am going to repeat my requests to participate in the interview and to allow the recording so I have your permission on tape.

Today is [DATE] and it is [TIME]. Are you willing to participate in the interview? [PAUSE FOR RESPONSE.]

May I record our conversation? [PAUSE FOR RESPONSE.]

Grantee Profile

INTERVIEWER, please complete and review prior to the interview]

1. Organization Name: _______________________________________

2. Contact Person: _______________________________________

3. Role in FINI project: ______________________________________

4. Phone number: _______________________________________

5. FINI Project Name: _______________________________________

6. Project Grant Start date: _____________________ End date: ____________________

7. Expected number of SNAP participants: ________________________

8. Count of Outlets by Type:

1. Large Chain Grocery Store/Supermarket, _________ (count)

2. Discount Superstore, _________ (count)

3. Convenience Store, _________ (count)

4. Small Store or Corner Store, _________ (count)

5. Farmers Market, _________ (count)

6. Direct Farm, _________ (count)

7. Farm Stand, _________ (count)

8. Mobile market at single location, _________ (count)

9. Mobile market at multiple locations, _________ (count)

10. CSA, _________ (count)

9. Form in which incentive provided:

   1. Tokens

   2. Scrip (certificate of money)

   3. Electronic format

   4. Other, please specify: ________________

Grantee-Level Key Informant Interview Telephone Protocol

1. Let’s start by talking about how you selected the outlets to offer [FINI]. Please describe your process for recruiting outlets to be part of your FINI grant.

IF NOT MENTIONED:

• How did you decide which type of outlet would be part of FINI?

• How did you choose the outlets that would offer [FINI]?

  • Did you develop selection criteria?

    • If YES,

    • Who was involved in developing the selection criteria? (PROBE TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED AND THEIR ROLE)

    • How did you decide what the selection criteria would be?

    • What was the selection criteria (by outlet type if multiple outlet types were included)?

• Did you have any recruitment goals in terms of the number of outlets that would offer [FINI]?

If YES:

• What were your recruitment goals and did you meet them? If not, why not?

2. Please tell me about your experience with getting the outlets onboard with the FINI project.

(PROBE TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED AND THEIR ROLE)

IF NOT MENTIONED,

• What worked well in getting outlet participation?

• What challenges, if any, did you face in that process? How were those challenges addressed?

• Did any outlet commit to the program and then back out?

  • If yes, do you know why?

  • Did you replace that outlet with another one?

3. What training or guidance did you provide the outlets to prepare them to offer [FINI]?

IF NOT MENTIONED,

• Who offered/conducted the training (PROBE ON WHICH ORGANIZATIONS WERE INVOLVED)?

• Who attended the training,

• What topics were covered during the training?

• How many training sessions were held? Did all outlets attend a common training program or did each receive a one-on-one session?

• Where were the trainings held? (e.g., at the outlet?)

• Did you offer any refresher training to new staff at the outlet?

4. Let’s talk about rolling out [FINI] at the outlet level.

• How did you roll out the incentive program across all outlets?

IF NEEDED: Did you roll out the program at all outlets at the same time or was it staggered?

• What was your reason for doing the rollout this way?

  • IF NEEDED: which partner organization was involved in this decision making and how did they influence this decisions?

• What types of issues, if any, did the outlets have during initial implementation of the program?

• How did you find out about these issues?

IF NEEDED: outlets brought to your attention vs you noticed them?

• What kinds of things did you/outlet staff do to address these issues?

5. How did SNAP participants learn that the outlets were offering [FINI]?

IF NOT MENTIONED, PROBE ON:

• How do the outlets describe the program to participants?

• When it comes to marketing the program, what guidance did you provide?

IF NEEDED: were any other partner organizations involved in providing guidance to the outlets?

• Did all/some outlets do their own marketing? IF YES, Please describe.

6. What types of issues, if any, did the outlets have once the program was up and running?

IF NOT MENTIONED: Think about how any of the following may have impacted program implementation.

• Staff turnover

• Distribution or redemption of incentives

• Converting consumers’ unused incentive funds to cash

• For farmers markets: vendor participation

7. What have been the most effective outreach and marketing strategies to reach SNAP customers?

• Have there been any outreach and marketing mechanisms that just haven’t worked? If YES, what were they and why did they not work as intended?

• Are you making any changes going forward to how you, or your outlets, market the program? If YES, describe the changes.

• What role, if any, did partner organizations play in outreach and marketing?

7. Have you or your partners talked with FINI customers about their experience?

IF YES:

• If partner: which one?

• What is the feedback you have received thus far? Have outlets provided you with anecdotes on consumer experiences?

• Can you tell me an example of a positive experience you have heard from a customer?

• Can you tell me an example of a negative experience you have heard from a customer?

7. What type of ongoing support, if any, do you or your partners provide to the outlets?

IF NOT MENTIONED: Think about things like…

• Financial assistance

• Updating/maintaining POS terminals

• Technical assistance

• Refresher trainings

• Have there been any challenges with supporting your outlets? If YES, what were they and what have you done to address those challenges?

• What has gone well?

7. In what ways do you or does someone in your organization/partner organization monitor the outlets?

IF NOT MENTIONED, PROMPT R: Think about…

• Conducting site visits

• Making regular follow-up calls with outlets (how often, what’s discussed, with which staff are they held)

• Understanding any variability in redemption over time

• Detecting fraud in incentive redemption

• What challenges have you faced in monitoring your outlets? How have you addressed them?

• What has gone well in monitoring?

7. What is your protocol to obtain Core Program Data from the outlets?

IF NOT MENTIONED, PROBE ON:

• How often are the data provided?

• What format?

• Who provides the data (from each outlet)?

• Have there been any challenges in getting all of the information needed? If YES, what steps have been taken to address these challenges?

7. Let’s talk about how you reimburse the outlets for [FINI].

• Is your reimbursement structure the same for all outlets or does it vary across outlet types/outlets? IF VARIATION, How does it vary?

• How do you reimburse the outlets for the value of incentives that were redeemed?

IF NOT MENTIONED, PROBE ON:

• Do you provide them with the incentive funds upfront or at the end of each month?

• What documentation do outlets have to provide you to obtain reimbursement?

• How long does it take for you from the time you receive the paperwork from the outlets to providing them with reimbursement?

• Have outlets requested more frequent/delayed reimbursements than you proposed? How did you address these requests?

• Do you reimburse outlets for incentives provided to customers or incentives redeemed by customers?

7. Please tell me about activities, if any, that are offered through FINI?

IF NONE, note and move to next section.

IF YES, what are the specific activities?

IF NOT MENTIONED, PROBE ON:

• How did you decide on these activities?

• Who is responsible for providing these activities? (probe on role of partner organizations)

• How are SNAP participants made aware of these activities?

• Have you heard any feedback from FINI customers on these activities? If YES, what have you heard?

• What has been your experience thus far on the effect of additional activities to help keep SNAP participants engaged in the incentive program?

7. You received a FINI grant for XX years and expected to reach XXXX SNAP participants. Please tell me if you reached your proposed goal and were able to reach the expected number of SNAP participants.

IF NOT MENTIONED, PROBE ON:

• Were there sufficient outlets in the program to reach the expected number of SNAP participants?

• Were the funds sufficient to continue the program as planned? Did you have to discontinue the program sooner than planned because the funds were exhausted?

7. Thinking of your experience with FINI, what have been the stumbling blocks?

16. What factors do you think were most important for the program to succeed?

IF NEEDED: If you collaborated with other organizations, did the collaboration help or deter from successful implementation of FINI? How so?

16. Do you believe the FINI initiative was: very successful, somewhat successful, a little successful or not at all successful?

• What makes you say that?

• [IF A LITTLE OR NOT AT ALL SUCCESSFUL] What would have to happen in order for you to you change your rating from [CURRENT RATING] to [NEXT HIGHEST RATING]?

16. Is there anything else that you think is important for me to know about the implementation and administration of FINI?

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me. Those are all the questions I have for you today. Do you have any questions for me?

[END]