Equitable access to healthy food is one of the most important values driving my work as the General Manager of Urban Greens Co-Op Market. Our mission is to be open to all and support the health and well-being of our customers by offering nutritious, affordable food. A cornerstone of equitable food access is accepting customers who pay with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

SNAP provides families, many of whom are co-op members, with important monthly funds to purchase food, while also serving as an important part of the sustainability of local and regional food systems and employment. Currently, there is legislation being heard in the General Assembly to expand SNAP benefits for Rhode Island’s most vulnerable families through the implementation of a Retail SNAP Incentive Program.

Introduced by Senator Valarie Lawson and Representative Jean Philipe Barrows, S0327 and H5715 would enable all SNAP recipients to receive 50% off their fresh produce purchases at SNAP eligible retailers across the state. As a grocery retailer with over 30 years of experience, I offer my strong support of this legislation.

I can personally attest to the expansion of SNAP being an important investment in families, and a source of economic and employment growth, and there are numerous scientific studies that validate this. In a recent report on the economic contributions of SNAP incentives, Colorado State University reported, “for every $1 dollar invested in a healthy food incentive program, we can expect to see up to $3 in economic activity generated.”

In Rhode Island, this legislation would use the revenue generated from a 1.5 cent per ounce sugary drinks tax to fund a Retail SNAP Incentive Program to alleviate hunger and bring economic growth to our state, particularly for the grocery retail, produce distribution and local farming industries. Funding a Retail SNAP Incentive Program through a sugary drinks tax will not only expand access to healthy and nutritious food across Rhode Island’s communities, it will have positive economic benefits as well.

Look at Seattle as an example. Through the implementation of a sugary drinks tax, Seattle raised approximately $22 million in 2018 alone to implement evidence-based food access policy which boosted retailers’ produce sales by 15%. The economic impact has been overwhelmingly

positive as evidenced by the creation of 24.7 new jobs after investment in their SNAP incentive programming.

Opponents of this legislation, primarily advocates working on behalf of the soda lobby, have argued that a tax on sugary drinks will lead to job loss. This is simply false. wo years after implementing a sugary drinks tax, Berkeley, California has experienced a 15% increase in food sector sales and a 7.2% rise in food sector employment. In Philadelphia, a similar sugary drink tax has generated $191.7 million in less than three years to reinvest in early childhood education and community parks. Philadelphia’s sugary drinks tax has not led to any job loss whatsoever; in fact,the first year of this tax resulted in 275 living wage jobs and 120 summer jobs for students as a result of the economic impact of this healthy food access policy.

The steady growth of food sector jobs in these cities illustrates ways that public health policy aligns with positive economic growth. Each of these municipalities is experiencing food sector job growth, and they happen to be about the size and composition of Rhode Island. They offer important evidence for the benefits of implementing a Retail SNAP Incentive Program in Rhode Island, creating a food sector based economic stimulus while simultaneously alleviating the alarmingly high rate of hunger in this state.

The revenue from this proposed tax is directed right back into a hunger alleviation program for Rhode Island’s most vulnerable families with the dual benefit of boosting the economy for the retail, produce distribution and local farming industries. It is ludicrous to think that a penny and a half tax will undermine the sweetened beverage industry or inhibit job growth. With this legislation we have the opportunity to expand healthy food access and alleviate hunger for thousands of Rhode Islanders while boosting our local economy.