Bonus Bucks at Farmer’s Markets

Marie Crise uses her SNAP benefits at the Abingdon farmer’s market. Crise’s situation is all too common. She fled an abusive husband with her 4-year-old son Lee. Currently homeless, they are staying with a relative, using a “couch-surfing” approach until they can afford a room or apartment. Crise is a nursing student at the local community college and she understands how important good nutrition is for Lee at this stage of his life. The farmer’s market is important to her because of the quality of the food.

State and local governments partnering with private industry and nonprofits have tied “bonus bucks” to making purchases at farmer’s markets. Wholesome Wave, a Connecticut-based nonprofit, sponsors an incentive program around the country to encourage SNAP recipients to shop at farmer’s markets, including one in Abingdon, VA. “The incentives get people to the market,” says Sara Cardinale, manager of the Abingdon Farmer’s Market. “We know that people are coming back, so eating habits appear to be changing.”¹

After deciding how much she wants to spend from her SNAP benefits, Crise purchases tokens from the market’s manager. For every $10 in SNAP benefits that she converts to tokens, she receives an additional $5 to spend at the market. The manager swipes the SNAP debit card through a wireless point-of-sales machine, the same one used to swipe customers’ credit and bank debit cards.

Over the past decade, the Food Stamp Program/SNAP has made many changes to reduce the stigma once associated with the program. Perhaps the most significant has been the change from paper coupons to an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card. At the grocery store, customers can access their SNAP benefits inconspicuously, as though they were using a bankcard. The EBT card has reduced the potential for fraud and the use of SNAP benefits for purposes other than food, but unfortunately the card has also made it harder for SNAP recipients to shop at farmer’s markets. Purchases made with SNAP benefits at farmer’s markets have plummeted since the introduction of EBT,² because most vendors at the markets still deal in cash only. The Abingdon Farmer’s Market is among the small fraction able to handle electronic transactions.

Farmer’s markets offer an ideal opportunity to strengthen the relationship between U.S. nutrition and farm policy. USDA offers help to farmer’s markets that want to process SNAP benefits, but the technology to do so is expensive—the point-of-sales machine at the Abingdon Market cost $3,000—and the help USDA offers is mostly instructional, not financial. There are government programs that provide benefits for seniors and WIC families to shop at farmer’s markets, but not yet a similar program for SNAP participants. The United States has more than 40 million people receiving SNAP benefits. If the program provided participants with greater incentives to shop at farmer’s markets, markets across the country would have a powerful reason to invest in the necessary technology, while SNAP families would have more incentive to shop at farmer’s markets.

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