Q&A Session: SNAP Incentives in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Programs

Are you looking to expand SNAP incentives to your CSA program? Check out this Q&A session and learn how the experts applied SNAP incentives in their CSA program making their food more accessible.

The presenters shared their experiences and challenges faced when including SNAP incentives in their CSA program. In this Q&A session, they discussed how one can create or expand their own CSA program in their location.

This webinar was a collaboration between Farmers Market Coalition and FairShare CSA Coalition in partnership with the Nutrition Incentive Hub.

Watch the recording here!

View just the slides.

Presenters include:

• Carrie Sedlak, FairShare CSA Coalition
• Liv Froelich, FairShare CSA Coalition

State Funding Round Table

In this roundtable session recorded in February of 2021, network leaders with experience obtaining state-level funding for nutrition incentives share their insights and experiences around the process of executing a campaign.

This panel grew out of the work that the Farmers Market Coalition has done in 2020-21 with panelists Molly Notarianni, Executive Director of the Farmers Market Fund and Elizabeth Borst, Executive Director of Virginia Community Food Connections and co-lead of Virginia Fresh Match. Molly and Elizabeth are the two authors of an upcoming practitioner paper with FMC that focuses on their 2019 campaigns to pass legislation in Oregon and Virginia respectively.

They’re joined by Adrienne Udarbe, Executive Director of Pinnacle Prevention, who has successfully campaigned for funding in Arizona, and by Alex Canepa of Fair Food Network, who provides policy support to SNAP incentive programs across the country as part of Fair Food Network’s technical assistance for the Hub. Alex has also worked on state-level policy in Michigan and Texas. Finally Frank Tamborello, Executive Director of Hunger Action LA, joins the conversation as a facilitator, moderating a conversation that focuses on partnerships across aligned agencies as an essential factor in successful state policy advocacy. Frank is a longtime collaborator with farmers markets and Nutrition Incentives programs in California, where he helped develop the Market Match program. 

Watch the roundtable below: 

This work is supported by the Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Center (NTAE). The NTAE is funded by Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program grant no. 2019-70030-30415/project accession no. 1020863 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. 

Oregon Farmers Market Association 2020 Census Results

Oregon Farmers Market Association recently released results from its 2020 census of farmers markets in a webinar titled “What Happened at Oregon Farmers Markets in 2020.” This presentation holds interesting stats about sales, attendance, and vendor level trends. It also dives into subjects like how Oregon farmers markets responded to COVID-19, widespread wildfires, and calls for racial justice in their communities during 2020.

Click the image below to watch a recording of the webinar.

Access the full presenter slides here.

Match the Market: Adapting Nutrition Incentives to Various Food Outlets

Meet the Presenters

Farmers Market Coalition and National Grocers Association TA Center in partnership with the Nutrition Incentive Hub have teamed up to present Match the Market: Adapting Nutrition Incentives to Various Food Outlets.

Nutrition incentive programs, which offer a “buy one get one” model to encourage customers to purchase more fruits and vegetables, have grown in popularity over the years. Although they originated in farmers markets, today nutrition incentives have expanded to reach several food outlets, including farm stands, CSAs, co-ops, and grocery stores. Throughout this expansion, administrators have discovered that there is no “one size fits all” approach.

This webinar will discuss how nutrition incentive practitioners can adapt and shift their programs to meet the unique needs of different types of food outlets. Statewide and regional organizations that expanded their nutrition incentive program from farm direct outlets to brick and mortar outlets (or vice versa) will discuss their rationale for this shift and how they adapted their program accordingly.  They will share the lessons they learned along the way, including tips on marketing, capacity support, and outlet funding requirements.

Attendees will learn:

• Important considerations when shifting an existing nutrition incentive model to a new type of food outlet
• The challenges faced when making the expansion between farm direct and brick and mortar outlets
• The benefits of running incentive programs in both farm direct and brick and mortar outlets

Whether your organization is already preparing to implement a nutrition incentive program in a new type of outlet, or you’re simply interested in learning about the difference between how incentive programs work at farm direct and brick and mortar sites, this webinar will offer you insight into how you can successfully match the market.

Click the image below for the recording of the webinar

Access presentation slides here
Webinar Q and A

Online SNAP Basics: Nutrition Incentive Hub and NGAF Technical Assistance Center Webinar

Webinar Recording

Online SNAP Basics Slides

Online SNAP FAQ

Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets: Webinar on Vendor Practices during Covid-19

Farmers’ Markets have dramatically changed their layout and rules to fall in line with the Governor’s emergency declarations and the Maine Department of Agriculture’s guidance for farmers’ markets. This webinar is an orientation for Maine farmers’ market vendors to learn what best practices they must be following. Topics covered include: Pre-ordering, booth setup, payment processing, product handling, and how best practices pertain to every aspect of your booth’s operations.

Webinar: Pickup and Order Options at Farmers Market: Create Resilience, Not Legal Vulnerability

WEBINAR: As Farmers Markets add curbside pickup, take advance orders, and offer bundled market purchases, customers are getting fresh, local foods in the midst of a pandemic. But, these innovations can also bring legal risk as well. With some advance planning, market managers can address these risks and create a program with strength beyond COVID-19. We’ll cover issues including increased liability risk, shifting insurance needs, potential licensing obligations, and concerns under site agreements. Your webinar presenters have expertise in farmers markets, legal obligations, and insurance. Join us to learn where legal risk lies and what to do to resolve it.

Presenters: 

• Rachel Armstrong, Farm Commons
• Darlene Wolnik, Farmers Market Coalition
• Emily Spiegel, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems Vermont Law School
• Chris Van Leeuwen, Food Liability Insurance Program

Read more about the importance of farmers market insurance and mitigating risk during COVID in our interview with Chris Van Leeuwen here. 

ILFMA: 10 Tips for Marketing Your Farmers Market During COVID-19

WEBINAR: Market managers are presented with the difficult task of marketing their market’s upcoming opening while also making sure they’re communicating to vendors, staff volunteers, and shoppers a myriad of new rules for operating a market during COVID-19. So, how do market managers make it all happen…and still sound hopeful and excited for the upcoming season? In this webinar, ILFMA will cover 10 tips for marketing your farmers market that you can incorporate into your PR and communications efforts right now.

CA Alliance of Farmers’ Markets: Practices at Market in Response to COVID-19

WEBINAR: The California Alliance of Farmers’ Markets hosted a COVID–19 Response/Best Practices webinar. We had a panel of speakers that represented farmers‘ markets across California.

Our Call to Action: Market operators and managers everywhere, we invite you to join forces as we ~UNITE~ and ~RISE~ to the occasion of keeping our markets OPEN and SAFE.

Go here to find up-to-date COVID–19 farmers’ market resources/best practices.