Farmers markets let food for poor double

Visitors buy goods Saturday at the Little Rock Farmers Market, which participates in a program that allows food-stamp recipients access to more fresh produce.
Visitors buy goods Saturday at the Little Rock Farmers Market, which participates in a program that allows food-stamp recipients access to more fresh produce.

Food-stamp recipients in Arkansas can now use their benefits to receive double the amount of fresh produce at 18 participating farmers markets around the state, including four in central Arkansas.

Through the Double Up Food Bucks program, people receiving funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- also known as SNAP -- can spend $10 in benefits at a participating farmers market and get a coupon for an additional $10 worth of produce at no cost.

Three Little Rock farmers markets will participate: the Bernice Gardens Farmers Market at 1401 Main St., the Little Rock Farmers Market at 400 President Clinton Ave., and the Farm Box Tanner Farms Market that delivers to Baptist Health Medical Center.

Also in central Arkansas, the Historic Downtown Farmers Market at 121 Orange St. in Hot Springs will be participating.

At the Little Rock Farmers Market, which is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays through July and on Saturdays through September, food-stamp recipients can go to the Shop The Rock shop to purchase tokens with their assistance program benefits. They will then be given the additional $10 tokens.

Vendors who participate in the program will have clearly displayed signs at their booths indicating that they accept the tokens and showing the kinds of foods that can be purchased.

The statewide program is made possible by the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention. The coalition received a $94,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to start its healthful-food incentive program in the state, which has the highest adult obesity rate in the nation.

That money was matched with $25,000 from the Walmart Foundation State Giving Program and other donations totaling more than $116,000.

"The program is expected to reach 188,000 residents across rural and urban communities -- more than half of the state's SNAP-eligible population," Katrina Betancourt with the coalition said.

Betancourt said the Double Up program has been successful in previous years.

"Low-income families eat healthier foods, local farmers make more money and more food dollars stay in the local economy," she said.

The program was begun in 2009 in Michigan by the Fair Food Network. It has since expanded into 19 states.

Partners in Arkansas include the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, the state Department of Human Services, the state Department of Health, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and the Arkansas Farmers Market Association.

"Double Up Food Bucks not only provides nutrition assistance, it also assists in expanding market opportunities for our producers and helps to put money back into our local economies," said Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward. "This is a solution that is working for Arkansas' families and farmers."

Diana Long, director of River Market operations for the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the Little Rock Farmers Market has made it a goal to be more accessible to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients.

"By providing incentives for SNAP recipients to double their purchasing power for fresh fruits and vegetables, we hope that families introduce additional healthy foods to their diets and make a habit of not only eating better, but shopping for those products at the Little Rock Farmers Market," Long said.

In northeast Arkansas, the Arkansas State University Farmers Market at Stadium Avenue and Aggie Road in Jonesboro will be participating.

In southwest Arkansas, the Howard County Farmers Market in Nashville will offer the Double Up bucks.

Two markets in southeast Arkansas will participate: the Rison Farmers Market in Cleveland and the Saracen Landing Farmers Market in Pine Bluff.

Several markets in Northwest Arkansas also will participate.

They are: the Downtown Rogers Farmers Market, the Siloam Springs Farmers Market, the Mill Street Market in Springdale, the Bald Knob Farm in Harrison, the Johnson County Farmers Market in Clarksville, the Downtown Fort Smith Farmers Market, the Paris Farmers Market, the Searcy County Farmers Market in Marshall, the Dirty Farmers Community Market in Clinton and the Fayetteville Farmers Market.

Metro on 06/12/2016

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