What’s New

The Public Health Institute is dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people around the world through innovative solutions and collaborative partnerships. The Public Health Institute is partnering with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Program to implement the American Rescue Plan Grocery Voucher Program.

Through this Request for Qualifications, PHI seeks up to 3 vendors to provide Grocery Vouchers services and specifications as outlined below. The vendor will be able to provide grocery vouchers and/or food delivery to Los Angeles County (LAC) residents that live in zip codes that were most impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency, with at least 75% in the Highest and High Need Tiers of the COVID-19 Vulnerability and Recovery Index; have the highest rates of concentrated disadvantage, and have the highest rates of limited English proficiency. This program will distribute up to $7,976,171 ARP Grocery Vouchers (physical gift cards and/or online purchasing and delivery options) to up to 10,000 qualifying participant households redeemable at participating grocery stores/online vendors in LAC or with the ability to provide services in LAC.

To review specific qualifications to participate, visit our Funding Opportunities page. Vendors will not receive payment for administering the grocery vouchers.

RFQ Q&A (posted 11/28/2022)

1. Q: Are you looking for digital vouchers/cards, physical cards or a combination of both?

A: Physical cards are being requested in addition to food delivery vendors.

2. Q: Are you going to provide us with an eligibility file for card fulfillment via mail or digital distribution to qualifying members? 

A: Cards will be distributed by participating CBOs (Community Based Organizations), so no file will be needed for fulfillment. Cards will be preloaded, and distribution will be tracked by the CBO and PHI. The grocery vendor will be required to provide PHI with monthly reports showing card spend data and balance detail. PHI will maintain all contact with program participants and no participant data will be shared unless needed for food delivery. For food delivery vendors, a file of information required to complete delivery will be provided.

3. Q: What is the program qualification criteria?

A: Program participants must be LA County residents who are not currently participating in CalFresh/SNAP, are at or below 300% of the federal poverty level, and living in areas with high impact from COVID-19. Benefits are limited to one benefit per household. Additionally, participants will be pre-screened for qualification by local community-based partners and the grocery vendor partners will not be involved in this process.

4. Q: Would you like the ability to reload the same cards? Or do you prefer one-time use?

A: One-time use only.

5. Q: When will the program launch and end?  

A: Launch –The program will launch in January 2023 and will end in December 2023; most participant enrollment should be completed by June 30, 2023. We expect most funds to be spent by December 31, 2023. Tracking of gift cards throughout the program period will be required.

6. Q: Are you planning to do any “Impact Studies” based on this program? Are you open to vendors using for research study?

A: PHI will be doing a full evaluation study of this program. Due to internal IRB (Institutional Review Board) guidelines, individual data will not be shared with vendors, nor can vendors use program participant data for their own impact studies. There may be an opportunity to partner with vendors on additional research related to the type of foods being purchased on their grocery voucher cards, however further discussion and IRB consideration will be needed to confirm this is possible.