SECTION 1. The department of transitional assistance and the department of agricultural resources shall jointly select a state-wide organization, which engages with both SNAP recipients and Massachusetts farmers, to conduct a survey regarding the healthy incentives program for the purpose of ensuring that said program is best meeting the needs of both consumers and farmers, and to inform future outreach efforts about the program. The survey shall be distributed to both participants and non participants of the program.

The survey shall collect information about the healthy incentives program from Massachusetts farmers and SNAP recipients, including, but not limited to:

(i) The knowledge that both participants and non participants have about the healthy incentives program including, but not limited to, the purpose and benefits of the program, and where and how the benefits of the program can be utilized;

(ii) the frequency with which participants utilize the program;

(iii) how and where participants learned about the program;

(iv) any barriers that both participants and non participants experience when trying to utilize the program;

(v) and feedback from both participants and non participants regarding their experiences with the program.

SECTION 2. The commissioners of the Massachusetts department of transitional assistance and the department of agricultural resources shall establish rules and procedures, including deadlines for dissemination and collection of survey information, consistent with the purposes of this act, and shall promote the effective solicitation to achieve the highest practical response rate, collection, and publication of information gathered from the commonwealth’s farmers and SNAP recipients regarding their experiences with and knowledge of the healthy incentive’s program. The commissioners shall ensure that the survey is conducted no later than 12 months within the passage of this act. The commissioners shall also ensure that the results of the survey are published on their department’s websites, and submitted to the clerks of the house and senate within 12 months of the passage of this act.