Increasing the green: Farmers markets & EBT card access

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.