Federal Food Aid Recipients Double Their Money at Local Farmers’ Markets : RT @TreeHugger

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An oft-heard complaint about “green” eating: high quality natural foods cost too much, remaining out of reach for people of limited means. On the other hand, concerns about nutritional value in the diets of the less fortunate have led to proposed bans on using food stamps for sugary soda drinks or junk food.

Double Up Food Bucks for Healthy, Local Food for All

The Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) program, entering its fourth year in Michigan, solves both issues with a constructive solution benefiting both recipients of assistance from the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), and local farmers.

The recently published Double Up Food Bucks Evaluation Report (pdf), provides proof that this ingenuous program works. USDA statistics indicate that over $1 million of SNAP benefits were spent at Farmer’s markets in Michigan. Using USDA data on SNAP benefits by state, we calculate that on a basis adjusted to total benefits per state this represents four times as much use of benefits at farmers’ markets as the runner-up Midwestern state, Minnesota, and over 25 times the amount of Indiana SNAP going to locally grown natural foods available at farmers’ markets.

More importantly, spending of SNAP benefits at Michigan farmers’ markets has grown from a paltry $34,615 in 2009 to over a million dollars in 2011. While this is still less than half a percent of overall SNAP benefits in Michigan, it represents impressive growth that should continue as word of the program spreads.