What Happened
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently lauded the Philadelphia farmers market movement, which encourages urban residents to purchase nutritional foods utilizing an incentive program called Philly Food Bucks.
So What?
There are more than 7,000 farmers markets in the U.S., and about half accept food stamps through EBT or “Electronic Benefit Transfer” cards. If your farmers markets aren’t accepting such cards, you may be doing your community a disservice, and you may be leaving money on the table.
The Philly System
Through The Food Trust, residents in Philadelphia can enroll in SNAP (the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program”) to purchase food with vouchers at a farmers market. Those vouchers are then processed using the buyer’s EBT card.
In addition to the convenience, there is a financial incentive: Philly Food Bucks, a program also operated by The Food Trust, gives SNAP recipients a $2 coupon for each $5 spent at farmers markets.
Implementation
The Food Trust has been around since 1992, and now operates 26 farmers markets, with the 10 most recent ones opened in conjunction with a “Get Healthy Philly” program. Get Healthy Philly includes a Nutrition and Physical Activity program designed by the City’s Public Health office. The goal is to provide easy access to affordable nutritional food and opportunities for active lifestyles. Five year goals include:
- Eliminating junk food from school
- Increasing the number of walkers and bikers by 25 percent
The leadership team is made up of a wide swath of Philadelphia’s best and brightest, including corporate partners like Blue Cross and Comcast, academia such as Drexel University’s School of Public Health and UPenn, and officials like Mayor Michael Nutter.
Much of this effort is based on recent studies on childhood obesity, race bias, and discrimination as factors on obesity and heart disease prevention; cited studies can be found on the Get Healthy Philly Web site.
The SNAP System
In the last two years, food stamp purchases at farmer’s markets have more than quadrupled. A primary driver in the success has been promotion of ACCESS cards as an accepted form of payment at the markets.
The EBT system enables payments from buyers’ monthly food benefits (the ACCESS card) to go directly to farmers selling goods at the market. The wireless point-of-sale EBT equipment is typically purchased with grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Nutrition Assistance Programs, which recently gave Delaware $5,404 for 11 markets. With $4 million being provided by the USDA, it is hoped more than 4,000 farmers markets will soon deploy the EBT system and SNAP.
Currently, more than 46 million people use food stamps, and the Federal government is trying to head off a litany of health afflictions by promoting use of the farmers markets.
Other Cities
Boston Bounty Bucks is another example of how a city is enabling low-income residents to shop for nutritious food. The city’s program doubles the amount of food stamps spent by giving a voucher for $20 when $10 in food stamps is used. Other double voucher programs near Boston include Holyoke and Providence. Boston’s program is funded in part by local non-profits including Project Bread, Farm Aid and Wholesome Wave Foundation.
Your Move
Visit the Web site of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food & Nutrition Service for more information on the Nutrition Assistance Programs and SNAP. There are special sections focused on accepting SNAP benefits at farmers markets, including an application and a helpful guidance and a Q&A for states.