Photo: Eze Amos
As purse strings tighten, and families have to decide what to buy and what not to, often one of the first things to go is locally sourced produce. Less than 1 percent of customers on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (SNAP or “food stamps”) go to local farmers’ markets, according to the Virginia Fresh Match, a statewide program that supplements SNAP benefits spent at local farmers’ markets.
Elizabeth Borst, VFM director of advocacy, says the organization began as a way for SNAP customers to make healthier choices, both in their diet and in their community.
“VFM is a grassroots program built community by community to increase affordable access to locally grown food,” Borst says. “In 2009, farmers’ markets were getting authorized to accept SNAP as a form of payment.” Several Virginia farmers’ markets received support to start nutrition incentive programs, including the one Borst managed, she says. Market managers around the state began working together to share resources, find funding, and expand to other markets. “From there, we built the Virginia Fresh Match network, receiving federal funding that is shared among partners.”
Thanks to funding through the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Local Environmental Agriculture Project, a Roanoke-based nonprofit, VFM’s primary program is matching SNAP benefits on locally sourced produce through approved outlets like local grocers and farmers’ markets. For example, a customer spending $20 of SNAP at a VFM farmers’ market gets an extra $20 in vouchers or tokens for free to spend on fruits and vegetables. This means the person has $40 to spend in total.
Shakaya Cooper and Samantha Provencio, VFM’s Piedmont regional leads, say this program brought thousands of dollars into their communities. VFM matched $14,432 in SNAP benefits in 2023 and $12,500 in 2024. Now, they’re looking for ways to bring those numbers up, and keep more money in the pockets of families and farmers. To further this goal, and get the word out about Fresh Match, VFM announced the Double Match Days program, an initiative at participating VFM markets in Charlottesville and Albemarle where SNAP customers shopping at area markets last week could double the normal match for their SNAP benefits, with that same $20 giving them $60 to spend.
“We’re looking at this as a pilot program, to see if we can get more people out there using their benefits to shop for food locally,” Provencio says. “We’ll look at the response and see if this is something we could do on a regular basis.”
Cooper says the rainy weekend was a disappointing cap to last week’s event, which ran from September 22 to 28), but they are hoping to run another in spring of 2026.
VFM’s efforts to buoy the budgets of local families and farms comes at a particularly vulnerable time for both groups, as SNAP benefits are facing cuts and changing requirements, funding to aid organizations is being slashed, and farmers struggling with rising materials costs are doing their best to keep prices low. SNAP Ed, a 33-year-old program that helped with nutrition education for SNAP and lower-income families, and one that worked closely with Virginia Fresh Match to assist with promotion and communications, has been completely defunded.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill defunded SNAP-Ed for 2026, effective October 1,” says Elena Serrano, director of the Virginia Family Nutrition Program. “However, we have some carry-over funds we will use to sunset the program this next year and hopefully build [the] capacity of our partners to continue our work.”
“SNAP Ed helped us secure the grant that allowed us to promote Fresh Match Double Match Days,” Provencio says.
Cooper, who also works as VFM’s SNAP coordinator, says that now more than ever, her goal has been outreach to the public and making sure families know VFM is out there.
“One of our biggest struggles is the language barrier,” Cooper says. “A significant percentage of lower-income families are not native English speakers. Another struggle is the high employment turnover in these communities; one minute someone is there, and the next, you’re starting all over with someone new. So keeping up with the rolling roster can be a struggle.”
The goal of outreach isn’t just about families, though. Ben Stowe, owner of Little Hat Creek Farm in Nelson County, says he was excited about Double Match Day because he understands that farmers’ markets might not seem like the most affordable option to families that are struggling.
“Farmers’ markets can be expensive, I acknowledge that,” Stowe says. “The cost of materials has gone up dramatically, and I have to be able to pay my employees a decent wage. But that’s why I love that [Double Match Day] could bring in customers who normally wouldn’t think they could afford to shop locally.”
Stowe says SNAP benefits are only accepted in one of the three farmers’ markets he currently attends, making it less than 5 percent of his sales.
“I’d say it would be unusual for me to see more than $20 in a single day [in VFM match tokens],” he says.
Provencio says the other side of their outreach efforts has been to bring more vendors into their network as VFM outlets, to allow more people around the Piedmont Region to use their benefits to shop locally.
“It can be tough finding places who are willing to go through the paperwork required to accept SNAP benefits,” Provencio says. “However, outlets joining the VFM network do see increased foot traffic, can find access to resources and networking opportunities, and ultimately do more business and help their communities, on both the consumer and the producer levels.”
Markets interested in becoming part of the VFM network can apply at virginiafreshmatch.org.
