Posts Tagged ‘Wholesome Wave Foundation’
FRESHFARM to Double Value of Food Stamps to Break the Yuppie Stranglehold on Farmers Markets
The headline is tongue-in-cheek, but it’s also true: How many low-income folks do you see shopping at local farmers markets?
The question is particularly relevant in D.C., where, according to the Mayor’s Office, 105,751 residents are food stamp recipients. How many of them do you think shop at the Dupont Circle market when they have to eat on, essentially, $3 a day? A couple of years ago, a few members of Congress took up the challenge to eat for a week on a food stamp budget. Trust me, they weren’t shopping at farmers markets. Sometimes, they ate crappy food, just like the experts say the poor do.
Today, FRESHFARM Markets, a local nonprofit dedicated to bringing local farmers and urban eaters together, announced that it will double the value of government-issued food stamps (and other relief coupons) at two of its Saturday markets: the one on H Street NE and the other in Silver Spring. According to a FRESHFARM release, these markets were ” targeted for the initiative because they are in neighborhoods that have a significant number of residents who receive financial assistance to buy healthier food.”
So how can farmers at FRESHFARM markets afford to, in essence, cut their prices in half for such a potentially large pool of shoppers? The nonprofit, according to a publicist, received a grant from Wholesome Wave Foundation to cover the costs. The grant lasts through the end of the market season, which is November for H Street NE and December for Silver Spring.
FRESHFARM says more funding is pending to expand the program. The full text of the release is after the jump.
