Link Up Illinois Broadens Outreach to Strengthen Food Access
Link Up Illinois has seen a 50% increase in SNAP customers at partner locations statewide. In August alone, more than 25,000 SNAP users per week received Link Match and brought home over $275,000 of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Expanded outreach through multilingual communication materials and digital campaigns–all designed to support food access in communities most in need–has supported this growth.
In response to language barriers faced by their customers, Illinois farmers market managers have requested that promotional materials be available in more languages. The Link Up Illinois team responded by producing brochures, flyers, and market signage in Polish, Russian, and Chinese, in addition to the previously offered Spanish and English.
Katherine Horwitz Martinez, Market Manager of the Downtown Evanston Farmers Market, says, “Making a visible effort to help those who speak another language, especially around money, shows a degree of care and respect that is not quantifiable.”
But Link Up Illinois’ outreach did not stop there. Since 2013, Link Up Illinois has advertised Link Match on Chicago public transit trains and buses. This year, we expanded our efforts and distributed more than 40,000 brochures to 74 Illinois Department of Human Services facilities and over 15,000 flyers to 81 Chicago Public Libraries, with plans to expand distribution to more than 250 libraries statewide.
On social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, we created new informative content, where SNAP users can learn where to receive and spend Link Match and how the program helps stretch their dollars. We expanded our online presence through organic and paid campaigns to reach more SNAP users. Across these platforms, our content was viewed over 500,000 times, while the program’s website drew more than 10,000 visits–a remarkable increase from previous years.
Link Up Illinois’ Farm Direct Program Manager, Kate Gurke, sees the impact of this awareness-raising effort, as she and her colleagues receive phone calls weekly from SNAP customers asking for more information on Link Match and programs near them.
