Farmers Market Coalition

As the Farm Forager for the City of Chicago and the Green City Market (and a new FMC Director), I have been working on the issue of EBT acceptance at Farmers Markets in Chicago since I began my position in May of 2009. Through my discussions with these two organizations on how to get all of the Chicago Farmers Markets to accept SNAP benefits, an idea was born.

Tags: Chicago, David Rand, EBT, Illinois, legislation, SNAP, state leadership

A new program will provide food stamp and debit card readers to farmers markets in South Central Pa., allowing vendors to increase sales and better serve a low income market, according to Capital RC&D, a regional nonprofit organization.

Tags: EBT, pennsylvania, SNAP

On February 24th, USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) headquarters issued a memo to all FNS Field Operations Directors throughout the United States, detailing new procedures for the implementation of scrip and incentive programs at farmers markets. Jeff Cohen, Director of the Benefits Redemption Division at FNS spelled out these new procedures for farmers markets SNAP retailers.

Tags: EBT, FNS, incentive, Jeff Cohen, memo, scrip, SNAP

The Administration’s 2011 budget requests $4 million for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to “provide point of sale terminals to all farmers’ markets nationally that cannot currently redeem SNAP benefits.” As the budget request states, ensuring farmers markets have point of sales devices will substantially increase the redemption of SNAP benefits at these outlets. In 2009, only .07% of all SNAP sales (in dollars) occurred at the fewer than 1,000 farmers markets currently accepting it. We know that we as a nation can do better. We agree with the President that “Nutrition education and human resource capacity to continue to be a key part of the SNAP to help low income households improve their nutrition levels.”

Tags: 2011 USDA budget, EBT, Food and Nutrition Service, SNAP

On February 1st, President Obama issued a $3.8 trillion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2011 on Monday, in which the White House allocates $149 billion for USDA.
years. While his proposed FY 2011 budget actually decreases the overall amount of discretionary spending available to USDA, it also prioritizes a number of new initiatives in line with the goals of the Know your Farmer, Know your Food initiative.

Tags: $4 million, 2011 USDA budget, advocacy, AMS, appropriations, EBT, FNS, rural development, SNAP

In September, the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) joined forces with the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) to start work on the Farmers Market SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Research Project. This project was funded by the Convergence Partnership. The purpose of the research is to develop policy and program implementation recommendations for expanding SNAP usage in farmers markets nationwide.

Tags: CFSC, research, SNAP

Today, FRESHFARM Markets announced the opening of its newest producer-only farmers market, the ‘FRESHFARM Market, by the White House,’ set to open on September 17th. The market, to be held on Thursdays from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m., will be located in the 800 block of Vermont Avenue NW, between H Street, NW and I Street, NW. At the same time, USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan is poised to announce the ‘Know your Farmer, Know your Food’ Initiative (KYF), launching September 14th. This is an unprecedented convergence of support for farmers markets at the national level. The Farmers Market Coalition proudly recognizes the pivotal role that its Board member Bernadine Prince, and Co-Director Ann Yonkers at FreshFarm Markets have played in this momentous achievement.

Tags: by the white house, deputy secretary, farmers market, freshfarm markets, Know your farmer, Senior FMNP, SNAP, WIC FMNP