CHELSEA, MA - On top of a bright Puerto Rican flag, blue cursive “Bella Isla Express” beckons locals in Chelsea, MA. Lively Latin music and a string of international flags are suspended above offerings of arroz y frijoles– or rice and beans. People of all ages frequent the restaurant, but Rosavaitte Baez, owner of the community staple restaurant, notices new kinds of purchases from people using a blue and white card.
“We have grandparents that come here and bring their grandkids,” Baez said. “The grandkids don’t know what’s going on. The grandmother’s paying with her EBT card but it’s just like she took them out to a restaurant.”
In Massachusetts, 27 locally-owned restaurants began partnering with the state’s Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) as part of the 2023 pilot Restaurant Meal Program (RMP). The RMP is a state-option food program that allows Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) users who are disabled, homeless, above 60 years old, or the spouse of a SNAP client eligible for the RMP to buy meals with their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. For those who are supported by SNAP benefits, these restaurants offer more than just food; they provide a vital connection to the community.
The RMP, initially introduced 1977, is a program that each of the 50-states in the U.S. can opt into as a way to bridge the gap of food insecurity amongst those who may not be able to prepare or store food themselves. Run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) but administered at the state level, the program is largely recognized as a subject of state opinion. Currently, only 9 states participate in the RMP (Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia).
Programs of state responsibility allow states to set their requirements for choosing restaurants to participate in their RMP; from how many participate to which ones. They often take a long time to implement. For Massachusetts, the DTA has been pursuing this opportunity since 2021.
However, the selected restaurants still have to be embark on multiple steps of authorization. After selection by the DTA, restaurants have to receive authorization by federal agencies like Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) to accept SNAP benefits and even sign a binding agreement. A DTA official says the process can be arduous but worth it.
The Drop Off
The MA DTA first started their selection in June of 2022 following a public press release or “notice of opportunity.” For a year, until October of 2023, the DTA vetted the nearly 200 restaurants’ who expressed interest.
In the process of narrowing down the 178 initial applicants, the state focused on restaurants with long-term commitment to community building and city efforts. Restauranteurs like Yonatan Pena, owner of La Parada and Starfish Market, found the RMP program through previous experiences with free city-sponsored workshops on restaurant managing.
“In every workshop, I went out and did my own research and I reverse engineer everything into now,” Pena said on how he started his two restaurants with no college education and a background in biotechnology work. “[It’s] personal hard work, but also services by a city and support. It was all connected.”
Before being selected, Pena made his restaurant central to the community through a catering partnership with a local nursing home to get culturally relevant food to the senior citizens. Pena and his staff also participated in the sustainable app “TooGoodToGo” to sell excess food at a discounted rate. When Pena was made aware of the RMP notice of opportunity, applications for both his restaurants were filed not long after.
“DTA was very thoughtful when selecting participating restaurants. Healthy options, affordable choices, and culturally appropriate meals were all things that were considered when selecting the initial businesses to include in the pilot program,” a DTA official said.
Ultimately, the restaurants applicants were evaluated on their:
- Ability to provide healthy and reduced-price food options
- Commitment and ties to their local communities, including their ability to serve SNAP clients in culturally appropriate ways
- Ability to respond to the needs of prioritized communities and eligible populations, inclusive of areas where food insecurity and rates of chronic disease have historically been disproportionately high, and areas classified as food
Restaurants who passed through state selection faced the USDA's thorough vetting process, a cause for more confusion for some owners. The DTA worked to offer assistance to the restaurant owners throughout the arduous process.
In the process of getting authorized, some restaurants struggled with selection due to complicated paperwork, language barriers, and impact on revenue.
“One selected restaurant dropped out because paperwork was overwhelming,” a MA DTA official overseeing the RMP said.
Another reluctantly withdrew because they couldn’t gamble for the potential hit to revenue.
“One of the rules is that restaurants cannot apply tips and taxes, gratuity is not part of the RMP. The client didn’t realize that was not part of the agreement,” a MA DTA official said.
Others dropped out during the back and forth with the USDA. A program coordinator at the DTA shared that a drop off in clients was somewhat expected because of just how tedious the nature of the authorization process is.
One of these forms required is the FNS 252-2 a 4-page 5-section application asking for proof of anything, from for-profit business discernment to crime convictions of business owners and managers after 1999.
A DTA official recounted how they once even did a zoom call with a restaurant owner to walk through and review paperwork. The pair leaned on existing knowledge and even Google until the paperwork got submitted. It was a group effort and learning process for everyone involved.
For FDA approval, the restaurants needed to be in line with government priorities of nutrition.
“When we did the training, they were against approving a Burger King, a McDonald's, fast food,” Baez said. “They did not want fast food restaurants because the majority of the time the food is high in preservatives, it's frozen, it's not fresh. And in [RMP users’] eyes, it's fresh, but in the government's eyes it's not healthy.”
These priorities allowed restaurants like Baez’s Bella Isla Express to stand out for their Puerto Rico-sourced ingredients and culturally relevant meals from residents’ home countries like maduro (sweet plantain).
“All the food is fresh. It's made every single day, so this way customers know what they're eating is a healthy, balanced meal,” Baez said.
For restaurant owners like Baez and Pena, getting through the years-long approval process was no easy feat. It was the product of late nights, city-sponsored business workshops, and many phone calls while perched in a quiet corner of their restaurants. The pair both agree that their choice to manage the stormy waters of the process was worth it, because of their customers.
Standard restaurants like Baez’s and Pena’s made the bulk of the RMP, but a few food trucks also joined the mix. For food trucks, the process required extra steps.
MA is the first and only state approved to include food trucks in the RMP. MA DTA actively pushed for food trucks to be included as they feel their community-oriented nature, mobility, accessibility and integration to the MA community is appropriate for their vision of the program.
“We really believe food trucks are the key. We ended up only having two [food trucks] continue to do business because it’s a tough process,” a DTA official said.
For food trucks to be successful, a DTA official shared there is an especially unique abundance of paperwork and policy preparation. As is the nature of a pilot program, the RMP team is taking careful note during to figure out how to really support those steps before expanding.
Although Bella Isla’s owners decided the boons of joining the RMP in the years-long approval process outnumbered the harms, many other restaurant administrators dropped off in the process between state selection and Food and Drug Administration approval. Out of 178 initially signed up restaurants, only 27 were selected by the state. After FDA approval, only 14 were allowed to operate the program.
The Roll-Out
Once the final 14 restaurants were approved, the MA DTA used strategic communication methods in their roll-out of the RMP including marketing materials for the restaurants like window stickers, 8.5”x11” flyers, and table tents.
“We knew that EBT can have a negative stigma. So we wanted to make sure it was clear that EBT and RMP were related but not have the stigma attached,” a DTA official said of their marketing materials.
Other elements of their pieces were grandfathered in; the circle in the RMP logo was pulled from the DTA logo and the specific shade of blue, Bay Blue, for it's familiarity amongst users. Spreading the word on the RMP did not just come in the form of logo stickers slapped on restaurant windows. Efforts took the shape across mediums varying from in-person community tent events to text message chains.
“We opt into text messages because let’s be honest, people get lots of [email] notices… but people live on their phones. Text messaging is one of the things we adapted way early. It’s very targeted. Eventually we want to expand [the restaurant list] and we can message more,” a DTA official said.
Once a restaurant received full authorization the DTA would roll out texts every two months, roughly, to any eligible clients in the surrounding area of the restaurant. The DTA calls this a "catchment area". This also means a lot of internal coordinating at the department to gather a contact list of all RMP eligible users. The DTA also included information available to the general public on the website.
Texts are a major factor in RMP eligible clientele stopping by Bella Isla. Baez shared that both new and returning customers came with more frequency following the text campaign.
“We have had new customers come in, and we thank the Department of Transitional Assistance and the State of Massachusetts, because they send text messages through their mobile phone and then [they] come in,” Baez said.
The Cracks
Despite the detail-oriented rollout of the pilot program, some intricacies, like the digitally logged technical categorization of eligible SNAP users, left some people slipping through the cracks. For restaurateurs like Baez, these issues encouraged her to serve as a watchdog for the RMP. Baez noticed some of her elderly, RMP qualifying customers were not enrolled or notified of the program. So, she took action.
Baez put together a list of SNAP users she felt should have been made eligible.
“I brought this information to the DTA, I'm like, ‘Listen, this person collects Social Security, they're disabled, they're over 60. They're not qualifying. There’s a problem,’” Baez said.
Baez feels the need for additional due diligence. Especially so being the only restaurant in the RMP in Chelsea.
“I gave [the information] over to the powers that be. I said, ‘Please look into this.’ Then that's when they found out that there was some little technical issues. They had their computer people, you know, handle it on the back end, and they were able to get these people classified correctly,” Baez said.
Besides reviewing classification and dealing with pages of paperwork, Baez also notes that accepting EBT means actually receiving those monies can be delayed by three days in processing. This is because EBT payments have to be processed before the monies being released to restaurants.
"That's okay. I mean, we know it's coming,” Baez said. “Hopefully in the future, they will be able to process it much faster.”
Errors in categorization and the distinct delineation of who qualifies for the program meant limitations to accessing the RMP.
"I've heard others use a 'Swiss cheese' metaphor to describe suboptimal program coverage: while these programs do a great job at serving a lot of people, many eligible are missed," said Dr. Cristina Gago, an assistant professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health who researches government benefits.
Pena said that the strict limitations prevented some of his clientele from buying more food from his restaurant. He says a bulk of RMP users at his restaurants are regulars who increased their buying frequency on the program launched.
“After the program, they, I mean, they were buying not just a basic $5 plate. They were, you know, able to purchase and enjoy larger meals for more members of the family,” Pena said.
While on a routine phone call with the federal government Pena said an official was concerned of fraud at his restaurant because of the sheer volume in RMP-related sales that had been occurring. The official's skepticism evolved into shock. For Pena, his shock never quite came, he knew his neighbors would use the program.
“Yeah, because this is new, there's a need for it and you're restricting it to just a few people. Imagine if you open it for everyone,” Pena said.
Pena has advocated for expanding the RMP qualification criteria to more SNAP users.
Besides bumping heads on who qualifies, Pena also was forced to remove one of his restaurants, Starfish Market, from the RMP due to a USDA clause that requires restaurants to either participate in the RMP for meals or SNAP for retail.
“We couldn’t have both, because we have a raw fish section that is for retail use, and they cannot allow one business to have the RMP program and the retail SNAP benefit program,” Pena said.
Starfish market opened in the 1980s. Pena's daughter, Jomaris Pena, helps manage the market & discussed the relationship Starfish has with the community,
“It definitely brings community together because if even if you move out of Boston... you are gonna want to come back. I saw that from my own experience and there’s customers who we’ve built relationships with and we’d only been here a year so imagine them coming here since they 80s. It’s a staple for sure."
"I told a customer once, it’s part of your DNA at this point," said Jomaris
Trying to communicate why behind the change has been a challenge too.
“We let them know it [RMP purchase] is available for the raw [fish] side but it’s hard to even explain it to them because it’s out of our control and also something we didn’t know we’d bump into. So definitely unexpected on both of our ends."
Jomaris Pena
Jomaris shared the implications of the hot food policy in Starfish market’s eligibility in the RMP.
“A big chunk of the community now, you know, they were used to and accustomed to being able to use the food stamps for hot food. And they can no longer do that so we do have a lot of customers who are upset."
When it comes to any advice Jomaris' has for other restaurants in the RMP who may experience similar situations she says,
“Communicate with the customers, be honest, try to give them as much information as you can. That’s pretty much it because it’s out of our control.”
Perspective in Policymaking
SNAP was never designed to act as the sole source of food for people. SNAP started in 1933 as a way to augment the income of the struggling farming community during the Great Depression. The program gained public recognition as a way to improve the nutritional status of food insecure individuals by the late 1970s. But for many in the U.S. reliance on SNAP has become the case.
“A lot of our regulars, we don’t see them as often as they were relying on that benefit,” said Jomaris Pena.
Criteria on what qualifies as purchasable goods using SNAP benefits has long been a debate in public health. Opportunities to buy heated foods, hot foods, and cold prepared meals is sometimes contested despite research noting its substantial benefits for accessibility, affordability, and overall health.
These food classifications have long been excluded for SNAP use due to concern of these items making the service too close to an income transfer program, something U.S. policymaking has historically been averse to.
Pena felt like a small fish in a large pond when it came to arguing his case to keep Starfish Market's RMP status against the federal government.
“You cannot win all the battles, and just me being, you know, very small, I cannot afford an attorney… or lobbyists to get the process changed,” Pena said. “But I’m not giving up in the future. I’ll make sure that what I have learned, and I went what I went through can change for others.”
With federal funding cuts looming, Dr. Gago notes that users, like Pena and administrators like the DTA alike, are anxious about the future of programs similar to the RMP.
The RMP is funded by a state's SNAP budget. That budget is made up of both the monies provided at the federal level and allocated by state. If cuts happen to SNAP then cuts happen to the RMP. From a program coordinators salary to the printing cost of the RMP marketing materials, it’s all in the same budget according to a DTA official.
The series of monitoring that states are responsible for may not be feasible when budgets are being shrunken and stretched.
“We are truly waiting and seeing what the next executive order is and what comes up. For now we’re operating as usual. It’s more let’s see where we are. We haven’t set an expansion date yet,” a DTA official said.
Pilot Continues
The impacts of Massachusetts RMP go beyond access expansion for SNAP users. There is an opportunity for economic benefits to restaurant bottom lines and for neighbors to know they are looking out for one another, a much more moral cause according to the restaurants. The RMP has both a profit opportunity and moral benefit.
The DTA shares they have received great feedback from restaurants. “Getting feedback makes us believe we’re on the right track, which is getting what we wanted, serving the population. "
“We are very careful to ensure we can support restaurants in a meaningful way.” MA DTA says their pilot program evaluation is informing their next steps, “We knew we have to invest the time to support them [restaurants]”
For restaurant owners like Pena and Baez, participating in the RMP is an extension of their moral commitment to their community.
“I believe in doing things right,” Pena said.
RMP sales for 2024 totaled $375,242, with a monthly average of $23,453 across approximately 22,000 transactions. All of the participating restaurants are locally owned.
- For more information, visit DTA’S RMP webpage here.
- For those interested in applying for SNAP, see the SNAP website and find your state. For those interested in applying for SNAP in the state of Massachusetts there is both an online application and mail-in option.
- You can also visit this website or call (877) 382-2363, the DTA Assistance Line from 8:15 A.M. to 4:45 P.M Mon-Fri.
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