Seven Common Mistakes Markets Make When Choosing EBT Technology

Seven Common Mistakes Markets Make when Choosing EBT Technology

Farmers markets around the country have been moving towards accepting additional currencies like SNAP benefits in order to make farm-direct food accessible to all shoppers. However, the nature of farmers markets and federal nutrition benefit programs requires that market operators have special equipment – EBT devices – in order to accept these benefits efficiently.

Many farmers market operators pick an EBT point of sale device without knowing exactly what challenges to prepare for. By now, market managers across the country have learned a lot of lessons the hard way — as a community, sharing this collective wisdom can prevent costly mistakes from affecting your market’s operations and finances on the road to implementing a food access program. This list isn’t comprehensive, nor in any particular order, but it does identify some common issues that we’ve seen market operators struggle with over the years.

EBT Technology: Market Discovery Process

EBT Technology: Your Market’s Discovery Process

Your process in choosing a Third Party Processor (TPP, or sometimes referred to as a “Merchant Service Provider”) and device (whether it’s a tablet or a payment terminal) to process EBT can be tricky and depends on a wide range of factors. At worst, rushing into the wrong agreement may create huge problems down the road. Understanding your model’s specific needs are crucial for this process for choosing the right Third Party Processor and corresponding device. 

This document includes a list of questions intended to jumpstart your thinking on specific EBT technology needs at your market or on your farm — it’s best used in conjunction with real feedback from farmers and market operators who use particular devices, or have faced similar challenges. Reach out to technical assistance providers in your area, email katie@farmersmarketcoalition.org, or share questions through FMC’s listserv for specifics. 

2021 Annual Farmers Market Coalition Member Meeting

The 2021 Annual Member meeting took place on January 29, 2021 at 10am PT / 1pm ET on Zoom.

In this meeting, FMC staff presented an overview of the organization’s accomplishments and challenges through 2020 within the context of our five year strategic plan and shared our focus areas for the coming year.

• View the recording of the meeting
• Access the “Additional Resources” document referenced in the webinar
• View the slides from the webinar.

Additionally, we introduced the candidates for the FMC board positions and opened voting for the elections. Board voting is open to active FMC members only and is open through February 23, 2021. Log in to renew your FMC membership or become a new member here!

View the candidates for open FMC Board positions, and vote online through the member portal.