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Abstract #148499

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Allison Karpyn, PhD, Brian Lang, BA, and Yael Lehmann, MSW. The Food Trust, 1201 Chestnut Street, 4th Fl, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-568-0830, blang@thefoodtrust.org

Farmers markets can serve as an effective tool for urban re-vitalization and economic development. Markets benefit both the farmer, often a small to mid sized grower, as well as the community, providing easy access to affordable nutritious foods grown locally. Until recently, however, changes in the form of food stamps, shifting from a paper stamp to an electronic debit transfer system resulted in great challenges in utilizing these federal programs at local markets. Wireless EBT card machines have become available in recent years, but are often prohibitively expensive to purchase and maintain for many. Despite these challenges, The Food Trust has acquired sufficient machines to maintain at many of our 15 urban markets and has generated data over 3 years on sales from EBT, its contribution to farmer sales, fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, as well as process data on effective marketing techniques to advertise the presence of the machines. Findings demonstrate that EBT sales contribute significantly to market revenues and provide a meaningful resource to low-income residents.

Learning Objectives:

• List factors contrinbuting to use of EBT cards at farmers markets
• Define system for collecting farmers mareket evaluation data
• Articulate procedure for assessing the relative contribution of EBT sales to community markets.
• Develop a system for marketing EBT card access to farmers and consumers

Keywords: Low-Income, Access

Related Web page: www.thefoodtrust.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

• Slides (pdf) or Handout