Food stamps at the farmers' market (finally!)

When Taylor and I moved to Fairfield, we had dreams of waking up early (okay not too early), grabbing our sunglasses and canvas totes, and hitting the Saturday morning farmers' markets together. We love the idea of buying local (especially after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan--have you read it yet?) and wished we had taken more advantage of the farmers' markets in Oxford during the years that we lived there. But now with a move to Fairfield, we had a fresh start and we were ready to make the most of it.

But there was just one problem.

With little expendible income, we just didn't have the cash to buy from the local farmers' markets. But we did have an EBT card loaded with food stamps, so we had to settle on the shiny, enhanced produce from Kroger.
"Too bad we couldn't use food stamps at the farmers' market," I sighed.
"Yeah, I wonder what it would take for farmers' markets to get a credit card/EBT swipe machine," Taylor pondered.

We proceeded to talk about why it's so important for farmers' markets to accept food stamps. Think about it--food stamps are a great stimulus for families in need, often much more effective than the traditional, one-time cash stimulus. Unlike a cash stimulus that might be used to pay down debt from credit card companies in other states, food stamps are almost guaranteed to be spent in the local community. After all, people tend not to rush out of their town or state to buy food. Whether they're spent at a Kroger, Meijer, Wal-Mart, etc., the federally funded food stamp dollars are infused into the local economy, boosting food sales and job potential in local stores. (Remember, food stamps are funded 100% by the federal government, while the state and federal governments divide the costs of administering them 50/50.) Unfortunately, local farmers' markets are left out of this equation. They can't reap the benefits of federal food stamp dollars because they traditionally have had no way of accepting the little plastic cards at their fruit and vegetable stands.

In the days that followed that conversation, I googled farmers' markets and food stamps. And I was surprised to find that last year, 7 farmers' markets in Ohio had been part of a pilot program to accept food stamps. I called a number provided for more information about where exactly all of these markets were located, but I never did get through to an actual person. I tried a couple more times, but with no answer, the idea eventually dissolved.

Until now.

A few days ago, an article by Josh Sweigart ran in the Hamilton Journal-News (our local paper) about food stamps now being accepted at the uptown farmers' market in Oxford. Apparently, food stamps are converted into paper vouchers that can only be used at the farmers' market. Then you are free to wander the stands and purchase your local goodies. Follow the link here to read the complete article:

http://www.journal-news.com/news/hamilton-news/oxford-farmers-market-joins-efforts-to-provide-healthy-produce-for-needy-232930.html?cxtype=rss_local-news

We are absolutely delighted with this news! According to the article, only one woman has used food stamps at the farmers' market so far, but on Saturday, Taylor and I hope to be the second and third when we visit friends Amanda and Dan in Oxford for lunch. I'll let you know how it goes!

P.S. To the VISTAs in Wilmington working with Grow Food, Grow Hope (and anyone else who might be interested)--check out this link (if you haven't seen it already) to learn more about how to make your farmers' market food stamp-friendly: http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/ebt/fm.htm