FM Tracks helps farmers’ markets manage nutrition programs
By Diego Flammini, Farms.com
A new app has been launched to help farmers’ markets around the United States manage and evaluate federal nutrition incentive programs.
FM Tracks, created by software developers Protoype1 and Case Western Reserve’s Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods (PRCHN) aims at simplifying the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) collection process.
“We’re incredibly excited to debut FM Tracks and believe it will change the way nutrition incentive programs are accepted and managed by farmers’ markets nationwide,” said Dr. Darcy Freedman, Associate Director of the PRCHN. “The FM Tracks app directly addresses the pain points of the pen-and-paper process by offering a streamlined solution to enter and process data, saving staff time and money. With FM Tracks, organizers may increase their reach and have a better understanding of their market and their customers.”
Farmers’ markets that use FM Tracks can benefit by:
- Implementing market information in one place
- Reducing amount of time spent on recording processing information
- Recruiting new customers
- Creating reports about farmers’ markets
- Providing market information (vendor list, hours, available products)
- Building databases to better understand who is shopping at their markets
The app is currently available for Apple products. A limited number of markets are being tested in 2015 before a full launch sometime in 2016.
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