We're excited to get into our first interview of REAL Talks, where we talk with Double Up Heartland, a coalition of six partner organizations implementing Double Up Food Bucks, a nutrition incentive program at grocery stores, farmers markets, farm stands, and mobile markets in Kansas and Missouri. 

Each partner organization in the coalition brings unique expertise and built relationships with the geographies they serve within the region, including urban, suburban, and rural communities across both states.

Kolia talks with two of the coalition partners, Mid-America Regional Council and Cultivate Kansas City. The coalition launched a DEI committee in 2021, so we  focused our conversation on how they're aligning multiple partner organizations with different values and priorities to a collective vision.

REAL Talks is a podcast created by the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems. The series is hosted by Kolia Souza and Andrea Weiss, and produced by Lindsay Mensch and Andrea Weiss. The podcast is supported by the Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Center, and Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program, grant number 20197003030415, project accession number 1020863 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.