A 2024 study identified Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP, shopper and farmers' market staff perceptions of the California Fruit and Vegetable Electronic Benefit Transfer Pilot Project. This effort, spearheaded by the California Department of Social Services, tested a new model for the California Nutrition Incentive Program, or CNIP, California's longer-running supplemental benefit program that provides matching dollars to SNAP participants to purchase fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets. The Pilot Project differed from the traditional CNIP dollar-for-dollar incentive match model in several ways, including offering a $60 monthly supplemental benefit that could be redeemed in a single shopping trip, rather than weekly increments, and the ability to spend the supplemental benefit on any SNAP-eligible item at any retail location, rather than solely on fruits and vegetables at the farmers' market, as required by CNIP. Focus groups with 40 SNAP shoppers and 17 farmers' market staff indicated that shoppers appreciated the ability to earn the full monthly benefit during a single shopping trip and the option to spend it on any SNAP-eligible item at any retailer. Most shoppers reported spending the additional benefit at grocery stores rather than farmers' markets, validating staff concerns about SNAP shoppers not spending their supplemental benefit dollars at farmers' markets. Challenges included difficulties understanding the pilot program and longer lines at farmers' markets to access the benefits. The study, funded by the Ecology Center and the California Department of Social Services, was published October 2024 in the journal Nutrients by NPI co-authors Ron Strochlic, Sridharshi Hewawitharana and Wendi Gosliner and former NPI team member Carolyn Chelius.