Fresh Bucks stretches food stamps at farmers markets

Thanks to a Spokane charity, low-income families can get more out of their food stamps at local farmers markets.

Fresh Bucks gives $2 to federal aid recipients for every $5 they spend at farmers markets in and around Spokane County. Coordinated by the nonprofit Catholic Charities, the program is designed to give people in low-income areas better access to fresh produce.

Fresh Bucks works at every farmers market in Spokane County except the one in Liberty Lake, which is on course to join the program in 2016, said Brian Estes, who coordinates Catholic Charities’ Food for All program. Customers can find the Fresh Bucks tent at the market, swipe their SNAP/EBT cards and receive a voucher worth an extra 40 percent to spend at the market.

Estes, who launched a pilot program for Fresh Bucks in September 2012, said the idea is steadily gaining traction. The program is working at farmers markets in four counties in Eastern Washington; he hopes it will one day reach all 13 counties that Catholic Charities serves.

Scott Cooper, director of parish social ministries, said Fresh Bucks is a win-win for the markets and their customers.

“It’s new dollars coming in that weren’t coming before for these growers and producers,” he said. “Those are really the people at the heart of the local food economy.”

Funding for Fresh Bucks comes from a $5.86 million federal grant doled out to nonprofit groups across Washington state. Additional money comes from Catholic Charities donors – and from the farmers, who can sell more goods.

“That $2 is kind of cobbled together, if you will,” Cooper said.

Times and locations for area farmers markets can be found online at catholiccharities.org/ fresh-bucks.