Photos by Jennifer Maiser. Top left: EBT debit cards can be swiped and turned into tokens that can be used just like cash at participating farmers markets. Top right: The Civic Center’s Heart of the City market, whose offerings include a wide array of Asian vegetables, is a leader in the program.
In the Bay Area, shoppers can use public-assistance moneys to buy food from farmers markets. But finding out about the program is often only their first hurdle.
By Jennifer Maiser
Organic. Local. Sustainably raised, grass-fed, free-range. Fair labor practices. Seasonality.
If you’re reading this magazine, you probably spend at least some time weighing those terms when shopping for food. But other San Franciscans are thinking about much more basic needs: how to feed a family on a limited income and where to find affordable, fresh, nutritious sustenance. In this city, one in every five adults and one in every four children are at risk for hunger. These San Franciscans are considered “food insecure,” which means living in fear of hunger and starvation, with limited access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods.
Although the sustainable food movement has been accused of catering only to the affluent, in the Bay Area several nutrition programs are available to low-income populations who want to shop at farmers markets. And at some of them, prices are even lower than supermarkets for fresh, local, great tasting fruits and vegetables.
However, shopping at farmers markets can present special hurdles for low-income families — as well as for the people trying to help them do so.
The most successful example of low-income access to the farmers market is at Heart of the City Farmers Market. Located in the shadow of City Hall, Heart of the City is one of the city’s busiest and oldest. It’s a vibrant market that is fun to attend for its live chickens, piles of Asian vegetables , and fresh fish booth.
Christine Adams has been market manager at Heart of the City for 26 years, since the first day that the market opened. An enthusiastic and welcoming supporter of assistance programs, she believes success lies in approaching these families with open arms: “We want them to come. We want them to feel good.”
Equal But Tricky
The redemption of assistance funds at farmers markets is a challenging business, both for the customer and the market association alike. First, customers must be able to get to the farmers market. “Transportation is the No. 1 obstacle,” according to John Silveira, director of the Pacific Coast Farmers market Association, an organization that runs two farmers markets in San Francisco.
San Francisco is a leader in assistance program coordination with farmers markets: last year, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance requiring all farmers markets in San Francisco to accept vouchers, coupons, and debit cards from assistance programs, and the markets are moving toward compliance. Statewide, only a small percentage of markets do so.
Both the vouchers given by the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) and the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) debit cards distributed through the USDA can be used at participating Bay Area farmers markets. WIC distributes paper vouchers specifically for use at farmers markets from May to November—around the harvest season—and can be spent directly like cash at farm booths. While WIC typically supports pregnant women, infants and young children, the program also funds a separate farmers market nutrition program aimed directly at seniors. The senior program requires states to match funds, so the funding for it in California has varied over recent years.
The current version of the 2007 Farm Bill, the $280 billion piece of federal food, agriculture,
and nutrition legislation now making its way to the president’s desk, will increase funding to the senior program, which is widely lauded as a way to support a sensitive population. Paula Jones, the director of San Francisco Food Systems, who works to ensure food security to all San Franciscans, says that “seniors in California and San Francisco have the least amount of resources. Any program that brings more money for seniors is really important.” Seniors also have a track record of using the vouchers. While traditional WIC farmers market vouchers are redeemed at a rate around 60 percent, more than 80 percent of senior vouchers are redeemed.
Plastic not so fantastic
EBT is the former Federal Food Stamp program. In 2002, the federal government did away with food stamps and moved to a debit card system, which lessened the stigma for recipients shopping at supermarkets. Now, simply by swiping their debit cards at participating stores, EBT users can buy eligible groceries
including produce, meats, fish, poultry, and dairy products.
But the move to a debit card system left farmers markets out in the cold. Debit cards require an electronic point-of-sale system that most markets lack. It took pilot programs in San Francisco and special funding to solve the issue. Now, markets in California
accept EBT cards by way of handheld, wireless point-of-sale systems or by cell phone to approve transactions. In order to redeem EBT credit, customers must first go to the information booth and exchange their EBT credit for market-specific tokens, which can then be used at individual farm booths.
Thanks to this extra hurdle, and the difficulty of publicizing
how the system works, EBT redemption rates at farmers markets have never returned to their pre-debit-card days. At Heart of the City, “we get a little less than half now” compared to what they used to, Adams says. The Alemany and Fillmore farmers markets have relatively high redemption rates compared
to the Ferry Plaza’s. While farmers at Ferry Plaza know about the tokens, and are eager to accept them, they don’t often
get the chance because “there’s a perception that we are a very expensive market,” says Dexter Carmichael, the market’s director of operations.
In order to start accepting EBT and similar vouchers, farmers
market associations must follow many steps that often require follow-up and time. Market managers complain of having to jump through hoops, and the difficult process for qualification. “Most market managers are really stretched,” says Linda Langan, project manager for the EBT Farmers Market Nutrition Promotion Project at The Ecology Center in Berkeley. “The markets that do it have managers who really understand from a food security point of view.”
Langan adds that there’s the additional problem that cooking
knowledge has eroded in general among Americans; not all customers know what to do with fruits and vegetables once they buy them. She and other Ecology Center staff members offer cooking demos at farmers markets and work on outreach through local schools. “A lot of low-income people don’t cook from fruits and vegetables that much. You have to re-teach people,” she explains.
Perhaps topping this lengthy list of challenges is cost. Fresh fruits and vegetables generally cost more than processed and fast food. Most of the customers at the Heart of the City market are hoping for a bargain, Adams confirms—they know that “at the end of the day, they can come by and get a full bag of produce for one dollar.”
She can empathize personally. “I was on food stamps at one time. I lived in my car with two kids. I know how it is.”
Jennifer Maiser edits EatLocalChallenge.com, where
various writers share their experiences finding locally grown and
locally produced food.
She is also a founder of the Locavores.
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