Building and Adapting Evaluation Technical Assistance in a National Healthy Food Incentive Program

This paper describes the evolution of the Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Center's (NTAE) evaluation technical assistance (TA) model, developed to support Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) grantees implementing nutrition incentive and produce prescription projects. As GusNIP grantees must contribute standardized site-level and participant-level data to a national shared measures dataset, evaluation TA is essential to ensure data quality, consistency, and comparability across diverse projects. Over its first six years, the NTAE refined its advising structure to balance scientific rigor with feasibility while meeting the needs of a rapidly expanding grantee portfolio. Initially organized around 1:1 advising, the model has transitioned to a hybrid model that maintains some 1:1 support while centralizing specialized support. Lessons learned and implications for practice include: developing and maintaining strong relationships; balancing grantee capacity and scientific priorities; offering TA in a variety of modes; tailoring TA to unique grantee needs; and providing TA in a comprehensive, integrated manner. Future directions include refining GusNIP core metrics based on grantee and funder input, expanding substudies to address evidence gaps, and strengthening grantee capacity for self-evaluation. Together, these adaptations demonstrate how a scalable, integrated TA model can enhance evaluation quality and support national learning across a large, heterogeneous public health initiative.