California Farmers' Market Consortium Receives Grant to Increase Access to Healthy Food

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The newly created California Farmers Market Consortium received a grant at the end of 2009 from the California Department of Food and Agriculture to help the state's economically and nutritionally vulnerable benefit from improved access to healthy fruits and vegetables.

The consortium, organized by Roots of Change and made up of six partner organizations, will serve six metropolitan areas: Fresno, Los Angeles, Monterey, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco. California is the largest agricultural producer in the United States, yet many of its residents cannot access or afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Over 2.4 million Californians are part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP - formerly known as food stamps) and 1.4 million receive WIC benefits (the supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children). These benefits lead to $4 billion in annual food purchases, the vast majority for processed and packaged food that is high in sugar, salt and fat, and low in nutritional value.

The goals of the Farmers' Market Consortium are to encourage the purchase of specialty crops¹ by SNAP, Seniors and WIC clients at over 40 farmers' markets, and to improve the nutrition of thousands of families that receive federal nutrition assistance. The project will also directly benefit approximately 650 farmers across the state that market healthy, sustainable and locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.

All of the

six Consortium partners are working to accomplish these goals, however each is going about the process differently based on their organization's constituents and reach. For example, in San Diego county the International Rescue Committee will work with WIC partners and state representatives to launch a new fresh fruit and veggie voucher program at City Heights Farmers' Market, and will partner with Hunger Coalition to provide outreach for SNAP participants on-site.

“The project in San Diego County will scale up an initial pilot program at the City Heights Farmers' Market." says Michael Dimock, President of Roots of Change. "By and large the Consortium demonstrates how local, state and federal government can partner with our farmers, nonprofits and philanthropies to improve community health through better nutrition and sustainable foodshed development.” See below for the other partner organizations and their projects.

Overall the Consortium aims to improve health and increase farm revenue by enrolloing over 1,000 new SNAP clients, and increasing SNAP expenditures on eligible specialty crops at 17 farmers' markets with access to EBT incentive programs (including 9 new markets). It will also support “bonus voucher” incentive programs at 33 markets. Bonus vouchers are given to recipients of nutrition assistance when they come to participating farmers' markets to purchase fresh produce. The vouchers add purchasing power — at some farmers' markets they may double the amount a recipient has to spend and in others they could add 50 percent. In addition, helping these communities eat locally produced food will lower their food miles and reduce their carbon "foodprint," positively impacting and reducing climate change.

A similar approach is being used across the country with success in both Rhode Island , and the Washington D.C./Virginia area.

Additional Consortium Partners:

Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association

ALBA will educate new, women, or Spanish-speaking farmers about markets accepting EBT, WIC, or Senior Farmers' Market coupons and conduct outreach to markets to increase benefits in Monterey and San Benito counties.

Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission
Fresno County EOC will manage the Fresno Market on the Mall and increase the number of new participating certified farmers that will accept EBT, WIC, or Senior farmers' market coupons.

HALA logo

Hunger Action Los Angeles
HALA will use volunteers to answer 877 Line (877 HUNGER-8) about food stamps, and farmers' markets, and will work with market managers to initiate LA area markets that accept EBT.

Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association
PCFMA will distribute 10,000 multi-lingual posters and flyers at social service agencies, community resource centers, and farmers' markets in Alameda County.

SFFS logo

San Francisco Food Systems
SFFS will work with local food stamp agency partners and NGOs to increase outreach to SNAP, WIC and Senior Farmers' Market coupon recipients to inform them which farmers' markets accept EBT, WIC or SFM coupons as payment; and will develop and distribute multi-lingual outreach materials.

Partner Locations:

View CDFA Partner Organizations in California in a larger map

In the News:
SF pushes food stamp use at Farmers' Markets - SF Examiner, Feb. 2, 2010

For more information about the partner organizations please contact them directly. It you are interested in learning more about Roots of Change role in this project please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Note 1: Specialty crops are defined as: fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture. Major specialty crops include items such as almonds, pears, stone fruit, leafy greens, prunes and processed tomatoes.

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Note 1: Specialty crops are defined as: fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture. Major specialty crops include items such as almonds, pears, stone fruit, leafy greens, prunes and processed tomatoes.

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