Report Finds Farmers Markets Face Barriers in Connecting Farmers & Low-Income Shoppers
Sweeping yearlong examination of farmers markets nationally finds economic, social and technological roadblocks for SNAP recipients
from the Community Food Security Coalition
NEW YORK CITY – (July 15, 2010) – Economic, social and technological barriers prevent many Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants from buying fresh and healthy food at farmers markets in their neighborhoods, according to a sweeping, independent study of farmers markets nationally. This lack of access should be considered not only a fundamental health issue for SNAP participants, but a loss of potential income for farmers. Redirecting existing federal funds, as well as instituting changes at the community level can minimize these barriers.
In “Real Food, Real Choice: Connecting SNAP Recipients with Farmers Markets,” which can be downloaded at www.foodsecurity.org or www.farmersmarketcoalition.org , the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) and Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) sought to define and measure the challenges farmers markets face in serving the growing number of SNAP participants nationwide and offer a road-map for improvement. Hard copies may be ordered through CFSC at no charge ( $5/each for shipping and handling).
While popularity and availability of farmers markets has burgeoned nationwide, the report found a significant and widening challenge for markets seeking to serve federal nutrition program participants, many of whom already have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. These challenges also make it difficult for local farmers to participate in and benefit from tens of billions of dollars distributed through federal nutrition programs.
This groundbreaking report focuses primarily on SNAP recipients. Recipients receive SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, on EBT (electronic benefits transfer cards). Though the percentage is growing, less than 20 percent of farmers markets have EBT terminals. SNAP transactions at farmers markets accounted for a mere .008% of total SNAP transactions nationwide in 2009. This rate of expenditure is 25 times less than all American consumers spent at farmers markets last year.
Among the reasons, according to the report:
* EBT terminals are expensive to purchase and operate. Also, successful EBT programs require a significant investment of labor. Many farmers markets are volunteer-run or do not have the funds or staffing to implement these programs.
* Currently, there does not exist any technical assistance program to help markets share information about successful models to speed up the pace of innovation across the country. Each market is forced to "reinvent the wheel."
Among other findings in the report:
* Many SNAP shoppers are not aware of the existence of farmers markets or that a growing number of markets accept EBT cards. Even when farmers markets do become SNAP-authorized retailers, barriers such as cultural or language obstacles, inconvenient hours, product mixes, transportation and perceptions that market prices are higher persist.
* With USDA programs like “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” and White House programs like “Let’s Move” creating momentum, there is a historic opportunity for the USDA and Congress to connect nutrition policy with agricultural policy.
“Farmers markets improve access to healthy foods in areas underserved by retail grocers,” said Andy Fisher, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition. “Seen in this light, the inability of SNAP recipients to use their benefits at farmers markets – along with other barriers – is a fundamental health issue.”
Among the report’s recommendations:
· USDA and other government and private funders can support leadership development within the farmers market community by facilitating the development and capacity of state and regional farmers market organizations.
· Similarly, government organizations should fund a nationwide technical assistance program that provides train-the-trainer, mentorship and teaching opportunities for farmers market leaders to disseminate best practices in a peer-to-peer format.
· Farmers markets fulfill a public service by operating EBT terminals. They should not bear the entire cost of operation. USDA, public agencies, state groups, community-based nonprofits and foundations should subsidize these operational costs.
· Farmers markets should evolve and experiment with new models that can address convenience, product, price perception, and cultural issues.
· The government can increase education and outreach efforts for SNAP shoppers to increase patronage of farmers markets.
· Congress should explore the creation incentive programs to entice SNAP shoppers to farmers markets as part of the 2012 Farm Bill.
And, among its conclusions:
· Portions of the tens of billions of dollars the federal government already spends on federal food programs should address the increasing rates of diet-related diseases among its beneficiaries.
· The federal government should redirect expenditures away from subsidizing unhealthy foods and towards the incentivizing of healthier foods.
· Similarly, the government should direct expenditures away from subsidizing corporate concentration in the food system and towards supporting family-scale and locally based agriculture.
“We know that farmers markets play an important role in improving access to fresh fruit and vegetables for ALL consumers, especially in impoverished communities that have been abandoned by grocery stores,” added Fisher. “We felt it was important to conduct this study to uncover and recognize the barriers to success these farmers markets are facing as well as to determine solutions to achieving positive outcomes in low-resource communities.”
The research process included literature reviews, surveys and phone interviews. The report reflects a spectrum of state-level stakeholders including SNAP agencies, anti-hunger advocates, statewide farmers market associations and state departments of agriculture. Much of the research was concentrated in 15 states, some at the vanguard of this issue, and others lacking significant leadership capacity altogether. Each of these states, however, is in one way or another representative of the myriad of challenges and potential solutions.
ABOUT COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY COALITION
The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) is a North American coalition of diverse people and organizations working from the local to international levels to build community food security. CFSC’s diverse membership includes 450 organizations from social and economic justice, anti-hunger, environmental, community development, sustainable agriculture, community gardening and other fields dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food to all people at all times. For more information, visit www.foodsecurity.org.
ABOUT FARMERS MARKET COALITION
Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) is a national organization that provides educational resources, networking, and technical assistance to local, state, and regional farmers market organizations. With the support of its members, FMC represents farmers markets at the state and federal level, communicating their needs and garnering public and private support for their long-term growth and sustainability. For more information, visit farmersmarketcoalition.org.
At 13th fattest in U.S., Texas adults outweighed by their children, who rank 7th
Programs are underway to tackle childhood obesity, but much more needs to be done, experts say.
By Mary Ann Roser
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
A national report last week that says Texas adults are the 13th fattest in the nation had worse news for Texas children: They were the seventh most obese in the nation.
"My heart is saddened," said Dr. Kimberly Avila Edwards, medical director of the Healthy Living Happy Living program at Dell Children's Medical Center. "A few years ago, there was hope obesity rates were leveling off."
Texas is paying more attention to childhood obesity, and progress is being made, but it takes time for rates to improve, Avila Edwards and others said.
The seventh annual "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010" report by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says the state's adult obesity rate is 29 percent, up from 27.9 percent last year. Texas ranked 14th last year in adult obesity.
Among children ages 10 to 17, 20.4 percent were obese, the report said. In the 2009 report, 32.2 percent were obese and overweight based on the same data, but this year, only the rate of obese children was included, said Laura Segal, a spokeswoman at the health trust.
"Obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges the country has ever faced, and troubling disparities exist based on race, ethnicity, region and income," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health. "This report shows that the country has taken bold steps to address the obesity crisis in recent years, but the nation's response has yet to fully match the magnitude of the problem."
In the Austin area, various programs are under way, including one cited in the report as a strategy that works.
Known as the CATCH program, or Coordinated Approach to Child Health, the trial program teaches schoolchildren that eating healthy and being physically active every day can be fun. It is a project of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living at the University of Texas' School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus. Travis County students in the program saw an 8.3 percent decline in obesity and overweight rates, the report says.
"We see one of our biggest issues is to get community support for these initiatives and to get resources to help make it easier for parents to do," said Deanna Hoelscher, executive director of the UT center.
Other groups in the Austin area also are helping, she said, citing Marathon Kids, Active Life and Sustainable Foods Center.
Dell Children's Medical Center has a clinic that opened in April that provides individual attention to obese children referred by primary care doctors, including visits with a dietician, social worker, psychologist (if needed) and doctor who helps the patient lose weight.
The hospital's Healthy Living Happy Living involves the family, said Avila Edwards, who is on the hospital's faculty.
El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission in Austin is using a grant from the St. David's Foundation to help young children adopt healthier habits and prevent obesity.
maroser@statesman.com; 445-3619
Sustainable Food Center offers Healthy Cooking Classes in Austin
FREE Cooking Class Series
The Happy Kitchen presents:
Learn to prepare delicious, healthy and inexpensive meals. Be informed of good nutrition for you and your family. Learn how to get the most food for your money.
Classes meet once a week for 1.5 hours for a period of 6 weeks. After each class, you will receive a free bag of groceries to prepare the recipe taught in class at home.
***Registration priority for Greater Mt. Zion parishioners***
***Childcare available***
***Must register for entire class series***
Contact Adriana Prioleau: 512.236.0074 x 115 or adriana@sustainablefoodcenter.org
When/Where
Great Mt. Zion Baptist Church
1800 Pennsylvania Ave. Austin TX 78702
Mondays evenings 6:30–8:00pm: 9/13, 9/20, 9/27, 10/4, 10/11 and 11/18
YMCA Town Lake Cooking Class
Here's your chance to take one of The Happy Kitchen's nationally recognized cooking and nutrition classes! Learn how to select and prepare healthful, seasonal foods as well as nutrition information that can help you meet your health and wellness goals.
What you get:
-6 1.5 hour classes filled with cooking and nutrition information
- 5 bags of groceries (one at each of the 1st 5 classes) to try that week's recipe at home
- Numerous recipes and nutrition handouts
- A free copy of The Happy Kitchen cookbook
Email Katy@SustainableFoodCenter for info or to register.
*You need to register for the 6 classes.
When/Where
Cost: $175
When: Wednesdays nights from 6:30-8:00pm 9/29, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27, and 11/13.
Where: YMCA Town Lake Class 1100 West Cesar Chavez St. Austin TX 78703
Click here to find out more about the Sustainable Food Center, and how they can help your congregation start a community garden, or address community food security.
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Houston Obesity Awareness Summit 2010
- The Houston Obesity Awareness Summit will be held on June 12 with exciting and fun activities for all ages. Come and find out about community organizations, resources, and tools that are available for all in the Houston area.
- When:
- Saturday, June 12, 2010
8 AM - 9 AM: Registration
9 AM - 2 PM: Summit Events - Where:
- George R. Brown Convention Center
1001 Avienda de Las Americas
Houston TX 77010 - Join us for the first ever Houston Obesity Awareness Summit. Inspired by the NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY, this confernce is being put on FOR THE COMMUNITY by State Rep. Carol Alvarado and the Texas Health Institute!
The summit is FREE and open to all!
FREE Healthy breakfast and lunch provided!
- http://www.texashealthinstitute.org/abou...
http://www.carolalvarado.com
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dis...
http://www.twitter.com/@staterep145
June is "Get Outdoors Month"
Did you know that June 12th, 2010 is National Get Outdoors Day? Throughout June, events are being held around Texas and throughout the country to encourage us to get outside, explore, and enjoy the blessings and beauty of nature. What better way to celebrate God's creation and to care for the Earth and our health, than to get outdoors and take a child or two with you! (Also, when you're out and about in Texas, please be sure to take a picture and send it to our "Deep in My Heart" project!)
See the attached proclamation from Governor Perry declaring June, 2010 Texas Great Outdoors Month.
Follow these links for more information about National Get Outdoors Day and Let's Move Outside!
Download the Summer Food Service Program Toolkit!
The Summer Food Service Program has helped houses of worship all over the state to get involved with the Texas Department of Agriculture's Summer Nutrition Program. This program enables congregations to provide food security, nutrition education, and opportunities in nature for Texan children who need it the most during the summer months. It's not too late for your congregation to get involved too! Download the toolkit here or order your own paper copy.
New Community Garden at University Presbyterian Church Austin
On Sunday, March 28, University Presbyterian Church of Austin dedicated its new community garden with speeches, prayers, and a poem written for the occasion.
The five raised beds, totalling 500 square feet of garden space, were built as an Eagle Scout project by UPC member Ethan Moorhead and a crew of volunteers. The church’s new “Garden Ministry Team” will care for the beds.
The new garden will provide fresh produce to be distributed through the Micah 6 food pantry, a multi-congregational assistance ministry housed at UPC.
UPC member Bobbie Sanders wrote an ode to the garden:
A Gardener’s Theology 
A garden is an act of faith:
Unlikely seeds and spindly roots
We bury in the earth and then await
A Resurrection Day in leaf and fruit and pod.
A garden is a place where understanding grows:
A tomato is a parable,
And peas a proclamation
That seven days were not enough
For God’s creating to be done.
In the making of a garden,
With spade and rake and hoe,
We enter into partnership with Him who gardened first,
And now bids us (of earth ourselves),
To join him in Creation
And share with him his joy.
In dedicating the beds, UPC’s senior pastor Reverend San Williams offered the following prayer, highlighting the congregation’s hopes for the garden and for its role in the Austin community:
May this be a charitable garden, providing fresh produce for our Micah 6 ministry—to those in our community who are most in need of nutritious food.
May this be a justice garden, drawing us into reflection and action around issues of sustainable food production, equitable distribution of food, and the dangers of a food industry that pollutes the air and depletes the earth.
May this be a teaching garden, especially for our children and youth—teaching the joys and benefits of growing food locally, the importance of good nutrition, a closer relationship with the earth and our calling to be its stewards and care-takers.
May this garden spark our imaginations and give us a vision for developing this lot in the heart of Austin into a green place of beauty and rest.
May this garden inspire in us a closer relationship with our Creator who gave us the earth as a garden to be kept and tilled, and for us to take from it what we need, but not to exploit it for what we want.
May this garden be all these things and more. We bless it in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
HHSC and Food Banks Team Up to Get Benefits for Texans
Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) has launched a new pilot program allowing food banks to formally interview applicants for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This initiative is designed to reduce the time that applicants must wait to receive benefits and to lighten the burden on the state's eligibility office.
Click here to read more about the delays in processing SNAP applications.
Since 2006, food banks have been able to provide application assistance to their clients who are applying for SNAP. Once an application was complete, the food banks would deliver it to the state. However, to comply with federal requirements, state workers then had to call the applicant to verify the information and to perform an interview.
HHSC was recently granted a federal waiver that eliminates this redundant step. Now when a food bank employee helps a client complete a SNAP application, there will be no need for a formal interview from HHSC.
The pilot program will provide extra training to food bank workers to ensure that the application process is done correctly. It will go into effect on March 1st, 2010 in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.
In 2009, Health and Human Services received a federal reprimand for delayed services, and two class-action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of Texans who were unable to receive benefits in a timely manner. HHSC hopes that this pilot program will help bring Texas back within the federal guidelines that call for 95% of applications to be processed within 30 days.
