SNAP recipients get double-value

SNAP benefits recipients who visited the Floyd Farmers Market last year got a pleasant surprise. A double-value program provided EBT/SNAP users twice the value deducted from their card. If they swiped their card for $10, they were actually provided $20 worth of wooden tokens to spend at the market on allowable food items.

Floyd was one of several farmers markets in the New River Valley and Roanoke that began accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT)/SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) cards last summer.

After the program began June 11 and the news spread, the farmers market became the place to be. “The program was so popular we ran out of funds we had earmarked for this program,” said Mike Burton of SustainFloyd, which manages the market and one of the partners in the SNAP double-value program. “We did fundraising over the summer and took money out of the SustainFloyd budget to cover.”

During the market season, Burton said he got several phone calls from individuals wanting to know about the program and asking “I’m going to come to the market and get double value on food stamps?”.

Deanna Swortzel, Childhood Obesity Prevention specialist with New River Valley Community Services, said she heard the same questions from first time visitors to the market. “Mom and dad would approach us with kids in the car….It was complete disbelief that we were going to give them double.” Once they found out that was really the case, the parents would get their family and the whole family would shop, Swortzel said.

Swortzel, who works through a grant from the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, said the program aims to increase accessibility to fresh produce. The SNAP shoppers can buy everything from fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products to vegetable seeds and food producing plants, roots, and trees for family consumption, in addition to edible items used in preparing or preserving food, such as spices and herbs, pectin and shortening.

Those who visited the farmers market also got recipe cards and a reusable grocery bag.

Along with SustainFloyd, and the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, partners in the EBT/SNAP program included the Community Foundation of the New River Valley and the Virginia Department of DSS. The Floyd County Multi-Disciplinary Team was actually the grant recipient. Community Services is the fiscal agent.

Burton and Swortzel attended a training session coordinated by the Blacksburg Farmers Market. Burton also attended a session provided by Virginia’s DSS.

The local program was modeled after the Abingdon Farmers Market, Burton said. “They were really the pioneers for this program in the state.”

The SNAP shoppers are not the only ones who are benefitting from the double-value program. SustainFloyd wrote over $8,000 in checks to farmers at the market for 2011 to cover purchases made with the tokens, half of which was USDA SNAP benefits deposited in the dedicated account. The other half came from the community and from SustainFloyd’s own operating fund.

Representing 20-30 entities in the farming community, Tenley Weaver of Good Food Good People said the response from the farmers has been “considerably more enthusiastic than I had even imagined….The SNAP benefits, plus the double value outreach increased our sales 25 percent above what they would have been.”

She commended the people who have been donating for the double value program. “I love that this is having a lot of different positive effects on the…community.”

Tenley said it is also good to see families bringing children to the farmers market. With kids growing up going to farmers markets, they find it is a fun place. “It is a really positive future trend.” She commented that the program is also active at the Brandon and West End markets in Roanoke. “We sold three times the meat…at the first of the month. That’s a sign people are planning and including this locally sourced food in their diet.”

One shopper thanking the farmers market for offering the program said it helps her family to be able to afford the organic local food. Another said, “this is a great thing – gives me better nutrition while I fight cancer.”

Marsha Krigsvold, market manager, was responsible for the weekly management of the program once it was up and running. The program also required a willing crew of volunteers to assist shoppers at the farmers market. Among those helping were Beth Deskins, Marjory Wells, Dawn Barnes, Grace Woods, Dale Krigsvold, James Pritchett, and Connie Clark.

Krigsvold said the first day the double value program was offered there were only five transactions. “By September, the best month of the market, we had a total of 66 transactions with a combined total value of a little over $2,800. The last month of the season was October. Despite some very cold mornings (it) was still a good month, with 61 transactions with a combined total value of just under $2,800.”

There were about $1,000 worth of chips available for shoppers, and during those busy times, it was hard to share them around, she added. “It got to the point they were being recycled through the market. By the end of the market, I was having to go to collect from the vendors about 4-5 times during the market day.” She said she was begging for more chips in August, but the funds weren’t there.

“The last couple of days…(the shoppers) wanted to know how many more days the market would be going on. People were coming by and thanking us. Women would find out and tell the men, and husbands would come and question us very carefully. They couldn’t believe we had the one-for-one matching.”

This year, SustainFloyd will also be going to the people who cannot come to the market.  Burton said SustainFloyd will sponsor a mobile farmers market during the peak season using its refrigerated truck and wireless EBT machine to reach those who cannot make it to the market on Saturdays.

To help with the expenses associated with the program, Burton said a fundraising campaign is now in progress. “We hope to use matching funds to create a large enough account to cover the double value program for at least two years. With that money in the account, we can be more aggressive in promoting it.”

SustainFloyd applied for and was awarded a grant from the Larry Woodrow Vest Fund of the Foundation for the Roanoke Valley, The $14,000 grant provided support and also for matching funds to be used in a fundraising campaign. For every dollar donated, the grant will match that amount dollar for dollar. “So, $1 donated actually means $4 ($2 from the donation and the match and then $2 from the USDA SNAP benefits program) that will stay here the community” and will be going to the farmers.

The goal is to raise a total of $24,000 of donations and match dollars, he continued. “That will mean $48,000 going directly to our farmers over the next few years, money that will recirculate here in Floyd and the area and also help those in need in our community.”

Donations can be made at the SustainFloyd website at http://www.sustainfloyd.org/project-spotlight, or checks may be sent to: The MD Team, c/o Lori Kaluszka, P.O. Box 283, Floyd, VA 24091.