ASAP nabs big grant to increase SNAP use at markets

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced nearly $35 million in new funding through four grant programs to support local and regional food systems, including farmers markets.

Asheville’s Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project was selected to receive more than $164,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Farmers Market Support Grant funds, set aside by the USDA to increase SNAP use at North Carolina farmers markets.

SNAP benefits were previously known as food stamps.

USDA Undersecretary Kevin Concannon said that, since the Obama administration took office in 2008, the number of SNAP-authorized farmers and tailgate market, roadside stands, CSAs and the like have grown from 753 to more than 6,400.

“We’re very pleased with that growth and expansion for two different reasons,” he said. “One, it’s part of our effort to nudge, to support, to cajole low-income households to purchase healthier foods, and also to put those dollars they use for purchasing back into the local economy.”

Accordingly, the USDA has made expanding access to local growers through SNAP users a priority, said Concannon, working to equip farmers markets with the technology needed to redeem the benefits.

“That trend is highly supportive of both a win for the consumer and a win for the producer, and we’re witnessing increasing access to healthy fruits and vegetables for low-income Americans, and helping the local economy at the same time,” he said.

The new funds support broad SNAP-related costs, including staff training and technical assistance, creating educational materials and raising awareness among current SNAP participants that their benefits may be redeemed for goods at tailgate markets.

Emily Jackson, program director at the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, said equipping farmers markets with the ability to accept SNAP benefits is just one piece of the puzzle.

Getting people to market is one thing, she said, but getting them to leave with produce — and utilize it to its healthy potential — is another.

“That education piece is really critical,” she said.

To that end, ASAP intends to engage community- and faith-based organizations serving low-income populations as the "gatekeepers" who would most benefit from training and resources.

That way, she said, they can speak directly to their constituents about farmers market shopping from personal experience.

“I think we far too often think only low-income people have an issue with knowing where their food comes from, and what to do with it once (they) buy it, but I really think the problem is across the spectrum,” said Jackson. “It can’t be, ‘We want you to do it, but we don’t want to do it ourselves.’”

Supporting farmers markets and expanding access to healthy, local food is a key element of USDA's Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative to revitalize local and regional food systems, one of the four pillars of rural economic development, per Vilsack.

According to USDA information, SNAP-authorized farmers and farmers markets increased from 6 to 146 from 2008-14, and redeemed nearly $165,000 in SNAP benefits, providing an economic boost to local communities in the state.

Jackson said the new funding will likely serve as yet another shot in the arm to Western North Carolina’s farming communities.

ASAP has been accepting SNAP benefits at the Asheville City Market since 2009, tracking SNAP data since that time, Jackson said. According to some sources, she said, the ACM redeems more benefits by the dollar than any other market in the Southeast.

But the work that the organization has been doing with low-income service providers is “catch as catch can."

“We’re really expecting this grant to give us a leg up,” she said. “We’re hoping to see a 20-percent increase in people coming to the market, in the receipts from the people using their SNAP and in their purchasing.”

SNAP use at farmers markets has already been on the rise, she added.

“We’re hoping that, with this deliberate effort to bring in the service providers, and the faith community as well, that we’ll be able to realize (further) increases," she said.