We are excited to announce that the Doylestown Farmers’ Market (DFM) will be accepting SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) this fall. The SNAP Program (formerly called the Food Stamp Program) provides benefits to supplement the food budget of limited resource households, and soon those benefits can be used at our market. The need for such a program has always existed in Bucks County; however, the pandemic has vastly increased the number of families relying on food assistance. In July 2020, about $5 million was issued in SNAP benefits to about 23,000 households in Bucks County. SNAP shoppers typically spend their benefits at large grocery stores and superstores, but the ability to spend their benefits at farmers’ markets helps increase access to healthy food for SNAP clients and support the local agricultural economy.
Alex Dadio, manager of the DFM, is proud the market will be able to offer this valuable community benefit. “We are really excited to be able to start accepting EBT (SNAP dollars) at Doylestown Farmers Market. It has been something that we have wanted to bring to the market for a long time and are excited to see it becoming a reality. This will help expand the opportunities for more people to be able to get healthy, local, organic food! That’s one of the biggest components of the mission of BCFA” says Dadio.
BCFA is helping to create a larger impact on the community by funding an incentive program where SNAP clients who shop at DFM will receive an additional $2 to spend at the market for every $5 spent in SNAP dollars. This incentive program will help to increase the purchasing power of SNAP shoppers by getting more local, fresh food into the homes of recipients while furthering the positive impact on the farming community.
DFM will join the Yardley Farmers’ Market as the first two farmers’ markets in Bucks County to become authorized to accept EBT. The Wrightstown Farmers’ market anticipates being able to accept EBT in late fall.
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