Double Up Food Bucks (OR, MS, and CA)

The SNAP Incentives Program — known as Double Up Food Bucks in Oregon and Mississippi, and Food Bucks in California — lets your shoppers earn a coupon when they pay for eligible items with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) funds. They can then use that coupon on a future visit to buy more eligible foods. ✏️ Note: This feature is enabled for Oregon, Mississippi, and California programs only.

---

​

How the program works

These programs are designed to double a shopper’s spending power on fresh foods. The way Vori issues incentives follows the program rules set by each state.

• A shopper pays for eligible items with SNAP EBT.
• After payment, the Point of Sale (POS) prints a coupon equal to the SNAP dollars spent on eligible items (up to the program’s maximum).
• The shopper uses that coupon on a future transaction to buy more eligible foods.

✏️ Note: Incentives are issued as a dollar amount, not a percentage discount. A shopper who spends $10 in SNAP on eligible items earns a$10 coupon for their next visit — they receive $20 of value for$10 spent. This is not a 50% discount applied to the same transaction.

---

​

Setting Up Product Eligibility

You must correctly flag products as eligible for earning or redeeming benefits based on your state’s program rules.

​

Prerequisite: enable EBT

To activate the SNAP Incentive flags, EBT must be enabled at the Department or Sub-Department level.

• If EBT is Disabled for a product or department, the SNAP Incentive Earnable and SNAP Incentive Redeemable toggles will be grayed out and unavailable.

​

Configuring eligibility flags

There are two primary eligibility flags used for SNAP Incentives:

• SNAP Incentive Earnable: Products purchased with SNAP that allow the shopper to earn a coupon or benefit (e.g., all fresh produce purchases).
• SNAP Incentive Redeemable: Products on which the earned coupon or benefit can be applied for a discount (e.g., local produce only).

​

Methods for marking eligibility

You can mark a product as eligible in three ways:

1. Department Inheritance: Set eligibility at the Department or sub-department level. All products within that section will inherit the setting.
2. Bulk Change: Use Bulk Actions in the Product Catalog to update eligibility for a selection of products simultaneously.
3. Individual Product Change: Open the Product Detail page for a specific product in the back office to manually toggle the eligibility flags.

---

​

Shopper Workflow: Earning Benefits at the POS

The process of earning a coupon is tied directly to the shopper’s payment method and the total value of eligible items.

​

How the coupon amount is calculated

The coupon value equals the SNAP dollars spent on SNAP Incentive Earnable items in that basket, capped at the program’s maximum. Coupon amount = the lesser of:

• The total SNAP payment applied,
• The total of SNAP Incentive Earnable items in the basket, or
• The program’s maximum (e.g., $20 per transaction in Oregon).

💡 Tip: A shopper’s confusion often comes from expecting a percentage discount. The coupon is always a dollar amount based on what they paid with SNAP on eligible items — it is never a percentage applied to the basket. After payment is finalized, a coupon prints automatically at the POS. The printed coupon contains:

• The dollar value of the earned incentive.
• The expiration date based on the program rules (e.g., 90 days).
• A concise description or set of rules for using the coupon (as specified by the program administrator).

​

Edge cases to know

• EBT balance is lower than eligible item total: If the SNAP-eligible items in the basket cost more than what the shopper has on their EBT card, the coupon is based only on the EBT amount actually spent — not on the full retail price of those items.
• A coupon was used to lower an item’s price: If a previous coupon reduced the price of a SNAP-eligible item, the next coupon earned is calculated from the reduced price.
• EBT Cash does not earn coupons: Only SNAP EBT payments earn incentives. EBT Cash payments do not.

---

​

Shopper Workflow: Using Coupons at the POS

Shoppers can use coupons for discounts on future purchases of eligible items.

​

Redeeming coupons

1. Scan the coupon: The shopper presents the paper coupon. The store scans the coupon’s barcode at the POS.
2. Discount applied: The coupon value is automatically applied as a discount against products marked SNAP Incentive Redeemable.
3. Use multiple coupons: Shoppers may use multiple coupons in a single transaction.
4. Earning and redeeming in the same transaction: If a shopper redeems a coupon and purchases additional eligible foods with SNAP EBT funds in the same transaction, a new coupon is issued for the newly earned amount.

​

Coupon expiration and value

• Expiration: Coupons have an expiration date set by the state program.
• Use it or lose it: Coupons are for single-use only. Any unused dollar value on the coupon (if the coupon value is greater than the total purchase of redeemable items) does not roll over and is lost.

⚠️ Caution: Coupon values are set by the state program. You cannot manually adjust the coupon amount, the expiration date, or the redemption rules in Vori.

---

​

Troubleshooting and Best Practices