Oh SNAP! That is, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—formerly the Food Stamp Program, and recently the newest way to buy fresh and local from the Charlottesville City Market. When the Market reopens on April 3, patrons will be able to make purchases using debit and SNAP cards.
What’s more, a $7,000 grant from Wholesome Wave Foundation will help double the produce takeaway for SNAP card users. For every $5 used through SNAP, customers will receive a $5 voucher for more purchases, with a limit of $10 in vouchers per customer. Read more after the slideshow.
"We knew from our research that local low-income residents were interested in shopping the market, and that farmers were eager to sell to them, but there was no system in place to allow farmers to accept the SNAP cards," said Gordon Walker, CEO of the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA).
For those of you scratching your heads—"Huh? JABA and the market?"—the local organization is serving as a sort of ambassador to the USDA on behalf of vendors. Judy Berger, JABA’s Community Nutrition Manager, tells C-VILLE that USDA supplements multiple JABA programs, and the group was happy to play "go-between."
"We’ve been wanting our folks to be able to have access to better food for quite a while, which is why we’ve been urging the city to do this," says Berger. When customers swipe SNAP or debit cards, they’ll receive different tokens to be used like cash at vendors’ booths; vendors will turn in tokens to JABA, which will issue checks to the vendors and report on card use to the USDA, which oversees SNAP.
According to Berger, the City of Charlottesville and JABA combined to distribute roughly $1,700 in funds among low-income residents to encourage use of the City Market, a system similar to the Wholesome Wave vouchers. When the $7,000 from Wholesome Wave expires, Berger says JABA hopes to follow up with funding from other local organizations.
"You wouldn’t necessarily go there if you don’t go there normally anyways," says Berger, who said vouchers and the SNAP/debit card system will help to educate more people about using the market. "This incentive breaks down barriers of the unknown."
