Farmers markets see more business from swipes of the card

By DAVID TAUBE--dtaube@poststar.com The Post-Star Posted: Sunday, March 11, 2012 10:00 am

GLENS FALLS -- Patty Campbell of Glens Falls chatted with winter farmers market vendors Saturday and exchanged $1 wooden tokens for purchases.
She routinely visits the market, using her food stamp benefits via an Electronic Benefit Transfer card to buy produce.

“I’m so glad to get fresh, local food,” she said. “Quality to me is more important than quantity.”

Many markets across the state are reporting the money spent in farmers markets with food stamps has doubled from 2010 to 2011, and local farmers market leaders are seeking to add more portable card readers for EBT in several Washington County farmers markets and two markets in northern Saratoga County.

From 2010 to 2011, Glens Falls Farmers Market has also doubled its EBT and debit card use, said David Porter, president of the Glens Falls Farmers Market Association, which also runs a market in Queensbury.

Statewide, more than $1.6 million in food stamps was spent at farmers markets in 2010. Spending figures for 2011 are expected to be available in about a week, Farmers Market Federation of New York Inc. Executive Director Diane Eggert wrote in an email.

The Glens Falls market has had a debit card machine since March 2010, which allows EBT recipients to exchange their benefits for $1 tokens and debit card users to redeem $5 tokens.

Most of the $1 tokens go to vegetable vendors, Porter said.

At the Glens Falls winter market, held in Christ Church United Methodist, visitors can obtain tokens from a farmers market worker after scanning their card on a handheld, mobile debit card reader.

The market keeps about $150 in $1 tokens and about $600 in $5 tokens, and Glens Falls Farmers Market Association treasurer Judy Provo said some Saturdays all the tokens get used.

“It’s really catching on,” said Hal Davis, who sells meat at the market raised from his Argyle farm, Lick Springs Beefalo.

Hudson Falls, Fort Edward, and at least six other small farmers markets in Washington County, as well as those in South Glens Falls and Gansevoort, do not have EBT terminals, said Linda Gifford, president of the Hudson Falls/Fort Edward Farmers Market Association.

She and other farmers have had a meeting to talk about getting further access in those areas, though, and plan to meet again on the issue next week.

“It would help out, because there are people who use food stamps all over,” she said.

The state has furthered the effort with FreshConnect, a program launched last year to bring food from New York farms to low-income residents and areas.

The program created 11 farmers markets, supported four more and created a program called FreshConnect Checks, where every $5 of food stamps spent in participating markets allowed benefit recipients to receive a $2 rebate check.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a press release the state will expand the program in 2012 through several new methods, spurred on by competitive grant funding.

Nonprofits, local government entities, regional market authorities, public benefit corporations, and farmers markets that previously participated in FreshConnect are eligible to apply for grants. A 25 percent local match of the grant is required.

Applications for the process are available at www.agriculture.ny.gov/RFPS.html and are due April 2.


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