Federal support for SNAP use at farmer's markets

Here is a letter from Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) supporting funds for EBT machines at farmer's markets - a VT success that needs to go national.

The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye
Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Capitol, S-128
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Herb Kohl
Chairman
Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
SD-122
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Thad Cochran
Vice Chair
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Capitol, S-128
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Roy Blunt
Ranking Member
Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
SD-122
Washington, D.C. 20510
 
Dear Chairman Inouye, Vice Chair Cochran, Chairman Kohl, and Ranking Member Blunt:

We appreciate the past support you have given to programs that bring farmers and consumers together, and urge you to increase the access of financially struggling families to healthy fresh foods by supporting the President’s request for $4million in the USDA Food and Nutrition Service budget to provide wireless point of sale Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)/Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) technology for farmers markets in Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12) Agriculture Appropriations.

Access to healthy locally grown food continues to increase for most Americans. Between 2009 and 2010 alone, the number of farmers markets in the U.S. grew by 16 percent, according to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, to more than 6,100 – the vast majority of which are hosted by nonprofits, municipalities, or other civic organizations. Unfortunately, access to healthy local products is limited for most SNAP beneficiaries. In 2010, only 0.012% of all SNAP benefits were redeemed at the 1,611 farmers market retailers authorized to accept them.

There are nearly 200,000 brick and mortar SNAP retailers which are supplied with free government supported EBT equipment, but farmers markets generally lack access to electricity and land lines, so cannot benefit from standard EBT equipment. Instead, most farmers markets must find alternative funding to cover the wireless technology, staffing, recordkeeping, and other administrative costs associated with offering SNAP as a service to their communities. This limits the ability of farmers markets to ensure that SNAP beneficiaries have access to the healthy fresh food they provide. With the cost of wireless devices having declined dramatically, the President’s requested $4 million for the purchase of wireless EBT machines for Farmer’s Markets is timely and economically reasonable.

The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 and corresponding SNAP regulations, have made it clear that all authorized SNAP retailers must be afforded the opportunity to participate in the EBT system at no cost. Funding the purchase of wireless EBT machines for farmers markets will ensure that the Department of Agriculture meets this requirement, and will ensure that the nation’s 43 million SNAP customers have healthy choices for their SNAP dollars.

We again urge you to include the President’s requested $4 million for wireless EBT in the FY12 Agriculture appropriations bill. This funding will provide point of sale terminals to all farmers’ markets nationally that cannot currently redeem SNAP benefits, and will help increase the redemption of SNAP benefits for healthy locally grown fruits and vegetables at farmers markets.

SNAP (food stamps) is Working as Designed

A nice column on how SNAP is working as designed.


http://www.thenation.com/blog/160789/food-stamps-gingrich-hasnt-clue

The recent tornadoes and flooding in the Midwest and South are an unmitigated tragedy, and it is wonderful to see the offers of help and acts of kindness to alleviate the suffering of all those touched by the events. My heart goes out to all the people who have lost family and friends and the communities ravaged by storm and flood.

This is a time when everyone, regardless of political persuasion or philosophical bent looks to our federal government for assistance, and rightly so. Many people have been left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They may have lost their homes, businesses and jobs. The federal government steps in with emergency SNAP (formerly food stamps) benefits, emergency housing benefits, unemployment benefits and grants and low interest loans to get small businesses and employers back on track as quickly as possible. There is no hand-wringing about budgets or deficits or debt ceilings. All we are concerned with is taking care of our neighbors.

The cold truth, however, is that personal disasters happen every day. People lose their jobs or their homes, become injured or ill, or suffer some other individual tragedy that sends their lives into a downward spiral. There are no newspaper headlines or donation hotlines for these tragedies, but our neighbors rely on those same federal programs to keep them going until they can get back on their feet.

We all need to be aware that many federal and state government safety net programs need to be there when one person needs them, as much as when a whole community needs them. Yet there is considerable uncertainty about funding levels for food and nutrition and other safety net programs in the federal budget. It is neither fair nor just for a country like ours to allow hunger to exist. This country has the money, the food, the programs and the people necessary to make sure everyone is fed well. The only thing lacking is the political will. We will end hunger when we choose to,, and not before.

Ending hunger transforms lives, and can transform our society. Let’s make it happen.