Link Up Illinois’ expansion across farmers markets and corner stores is an important milestone  addressing food access across the state and city. Building on our success, this past year, we worked closely with the Midwest Independent Retailers Association to bring the program into full-scale grocery stores, including Cermak Fresh Market, Pete’s Fresh Market, and One Stop Grocery. 

This initiative has not come without its challenges: the Link Match incentive had to be integrated into the grocery store’s POS (Point Of Sale) system. It meant converting the paper Link Match voucher into an electronically issued voucher. This challenge was further complicated by the fact that grocery stores do not all use the same POS system. As a result, one POS integration is not a one size fits all solution. 

It has taken the program years of work to get this effort off the ground and running smoothly at each store. Despite these challenges, Cermak Fresh Market was the first store to implement the electronic Link Match voucher. 

Cermak Fresh Market reported that they have an average of $2,500 of Link Match purchases per week. In collaboration with these and other regional grocers, Link Up Illinois looks forward to the further expansion of the program in 2023.