What is Healthy Ways?
The Healthy Ways app provides an incentive card program used by specialized programs and non-profit corporations to incentivize low income recipients to purchase healthy food items from retailers, such as farmers markets, direct-marketing farmers/produce stands, grocery stores and other approved food retailers for the purpose of encouraging healthy eating.
The Healthy Ways app is designed to work with Android and iOS mobile phones, tablets and other devices with internet connectivity, and proprietary point of sale devices for managing and processing incentive card data, tracking data and generating reports on card transactions.
Healthy Ways program was designed to offer a secure, trackable, real-time, sustainable delivery method for matching SNAP (EBT Food Stamp) programs and other funded or government assistance programs that provide additional food assistance program to those in need. Examples of grant funding programs such as FINI, matching SNAP funds, HIP, or food prescription.
Healthy Ways Card
Healthy Ways is a customized software program which provides the ability to establish minimum / maximum dollar amounts to be loaded onto the organizations/markets customized Healthy Ways card and distributed for the program in accordance to the programs specific guidelines. The incentive funds are loaded onto the customized card to promote local purchases thru Farmers markets, produce at roadside stands, mobile food buses, direct-marketing farmers, to home-delivery for shut-ins or senior citizens or other SNAP qualified homes.
Standardized cards come with Healthy Ways logo, images and are magnetically stripped and bar coded marked. Customization of card design and program requirement protocols are available.
Features of the Healthy Ways app:
- Load matching values from actual SNAP transactions
- Redemption of Healthy Ways values
- Refund automation in matching dollars
- Ability to set minimum or maximum load/redemption amounts per day
- Balance Inquiry functionalities from the POS device
- Real time card data and responses access via Web portal
- Multitude of data is captured meeting many of the federal grant funded program requirements
- Backend user friendly secure web portal provides reporting access for each entity.
- The responsible funding organization would issue funds according to the card values to the participating merchant/farmer for redemptions based on reporting information via website portal.
Benefits:
- App-based solution
- A universal customizable card program
- Allows “chaining” of accounts for track-ability of redemptions
- Allows “chaining” of accounts to use one card for redemption at multiple different markets
- Retailer/Merchant and customer support via an established hotline
- Database access thru secure/password protected website
Programs limitations:
Healthy Ways® incentive program card is intended be inconspicuous in its card design to remove stigmas of identifying a low income or needy recipient. Healthy Ways® app offers accurate methodology for replacing the use of paper coupons, scripts or tokens at a farmers’ markets, roadside stands, mobile food buses, direct-marketing farmers, home-delivery for shut-ins or senior citizens or other venues.
Healthy Ways® app collects detailed data whereby you can generate real-time reports to accurately transfer funding to the appropriate individual farmer/retailer for reimbursement. A secure, encrypted databased and password protected website portal access is maintained.
Healthy Ways Matter, LLC (operating under the doing business name of Healthy Ways) is not a funding source. Merchant Resource Center, Inc offers Healthy Ways® under a license agreement.
