“Rain or shine, Freshfarm markets will be open,” said senior market manager Lindsay Wallace.
Freshfarm operates 13 farmers’ markets in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The markets honor many nutritional assistance programs; in the District of Columbia, Freshfarm’s eight markets participate in food stamps—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (Food Stamps/EBT), Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), matching dollars, WIC Cash Value, Senior “Get Fresh” Checks, FVRx and, as of June 1, Produce Plus.
Produce Plus, a District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH) program to assist low-income families, runs June through September and allows low-income families a budget of $10 per market per week to spend on fresh fruit and vegetables. Anyone that receives SNAP, WIC, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Grocery Plus—which provides groceries for seniors, Qualified Medicare Beneficiaries (QMB), Medicaid or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits is eligible for Produce Plus.
Qualified Medicare Beneficiaries (QMB, I mentioned in my email to Dottie) are also eligible to receive Produce Plus. This is a federal health insurance program for low-income seniors, sort of Medicaid for seniors.
“It’s a really great program that’s put on by WIC and the Department of Health and it’s for distribution at farmers’ markets only. All of our eight farmers’ markets are Produce Plus distribution sites,” said Wallace.
One of the benefits of Produce Plus, Wallace said, is that people who might not ordinarily come to the market are drawn in. “There’s a perception that farmers’ markets are very expensive, and that they aren’t accessible to people of limited means, and we don’t want that to be the case at our markets.”
“We really want people to have access to fresh, local, healthy foods that should be universal, and not limited to people who have lots of money. We really want people to maximize the health benefits of eating locally, we want people to maximize the sustainability benefits of eating locally, and so we really want to lower as many barriers as possible,” Wallace said.
At 12 of its markets, Freshfarm has a Matching Dollars program, which provides customers who utilize nutrition assistance programs with tokens they may redeem for food items sold at the market. The Matching Dollars program is supported by tax-deductible donations; Freshfarm’s goal for 2015 is $50,000. Freshfarm sponsors the Jean Wallace Douglas Farmers scholarship as well as a “gleaner” program, where food that is not sold on market day is donated to the homeless. The Thursday market located on Vermont Avenue, known as the market by the White House, is paired with Thrive D.C.
“It’s just a gratifying experience to know that that Freshfarm market is committed through our mission of supporting sustainable agriculture and providing retail avenues for farmers and food producers, to also pair that with outreach for the food insecure populations of whatever areas the markets are in,” said market manager Tara Boyle. “I feel really strongly about that and I’m very happy about being a part of it.”
Wallace and Boyle the outcome of Produce Plus has been positive. “There is a lot of testimony of what an impact it made on peoples’ lives to have access to fresh produce all summer long; they’d write us letters and say ‘my health has improved, and I’ve lost weight and my hair is growing better, and I feel a million times better,’ and those are the real-life results we want to see,” Wallace said.
The Produce Plus program first came into existence in the fall of 2013 and has helped more than 15,000 people, according to Lillie Rosen, the food access director at D.C. Greens. She said 90 percent of the Produce Plus vouchers distributed in 2014 were used and provided food from local farms.
Fruits and vegetables are really expensive, and [might] be cut from a diet under financial pressure, according to the regional director for Capital Area Food Bank, Paul Reichel. “We really need to encourage folks to consume more fruits and vegetables,” he said.
Roughly half of people experiencing homelessness have a food-related illness. Programs like Produce Plus can really health people, according to Dylan Menguy, the Capital Area Food Bank media coordinator. “For a lot of people, their eating any type of fruit or vegetable in its fresh form feels more dignified,” Menguy added.
As of May 27, the District has given Produce Plus between $350,000 and $450,000 for 2015. Menguy said it is beneficial for Produce Plus to be at farmers markets because “it kind of de-stigmatizes food assistance.”
Many market programs require only that a customer show proof of residency and proof of enrollment in the food assistance program to be eligible for additional market savings.
