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  • From: Sabina F Swift <sabina AT hawaii.edu>
  • To: lists AT rhomestead.com, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Food stamps, WIC program and credit card acceptance
  • Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2006 14:58:51 -1000


WIC is unheard of here in Hawaii (for this woman, at least) but it seems like
a great program to assist underserved folks - for the whole family to eat
fresh, healthy produce - and the producers. But I can see how complicated and
complex it could get in the market level as Beth had explained.

I'll start checking around if we have this federal program in the state.

Aloha,
Sabina

Sabina F. Swift
Assistant Specialist



----- Original Message -----
From: Beth Spaugh <lists AT rhomestead.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 3, 2006 2:37 pm
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Food stamps, WIC program and credit card
acceptance
To: 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>

> Women, Infants, and Children. It is a program run through Health
> Departmentsin New York. They give coupons for milk, eggs, etc to
> be redeemed at grocery
> stores. The funds come from USDA to the states.
>
> In New York, there are two USDA programs for use at Farmers
> Markets - WIC
> and Senior coupons. Low income (the guidelines are actually pretty
> generous)folks get a book of ten $2 coupons to use at qualified
> farmers markets for
> fresh produce. In New York, vendors are supposed to grow at least
> half of
> what they are offering, and the coupons can only be used for
> produce grown
> in New York or neighboring states (NY, VT, MA, CT, NJ, OH, PA). In
> somestates the coupons can also be used at farmstands. It is up to
> the states to
> decide.
>
> We had a local instance year before last where they knowingly let
> a vendor
> take coupons who was almost entirely "a peddler" because growers
> had dropped
> out of the market but the state wanted a "farmers market" at that
> locationto serve the low income population. This issue has also
> strongly divided our
> local farmers market cooperative. Some folks are convinced that
> customerswant a wide variety of cheap food and don't care where it
> comes from. Others
> of us hear from customers who are amazed and distressed that
> "farmers" at
> the farmers market can buy wholesale and resell. Our market
> president also
> told me that he wants the variety of out of season produce to attract
> customers for the non-farm vendors. Needless to say, I am not
> doing that
> market again, and am going off the Board of our cooperative. We
> had to
> really fight last year to get a 70-30 rule (at least 70% of what
> is on your
> table should be made/grown by you). Several of our markets have
> blatantlyignored that, and most of the folks on the Board who
> favor producer-only or
> a 70-30 rule are giving up and going off the Board. We have one
> independentproducer-only market in the region (which I go to). I
> have thought about
> opening a competing producer-only market in our main town, but
> don't know if
> we have enough vendors and don't know that I want to commit to another
> farmers market.
>
> The issue definitely has caused hard feelings on both sides. Some
> bonafideproducers don't have early season stuff but instead of
> wanting to make
> production changes so they do, just want to buy from others
> (mostly local)
> who do.
>
> Well, so much for a quick answer to your question.
>
> Beth Spaugh
> Rehoboth Homestead
> Peru NY
> rhomestead.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
> Sabina F
> Swift
> Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 6:44 PM
> To: Market Farming
> Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Food stamps, WIC program and credit card
> acceptance
>
> Willie,
> What does the acronym WIC stand for?
> Happy New Year!
> Sabina
>
> Sabina F. Swift
> Assistant Specialist
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Willie McKemie <mf AT austinfarm.org>
> Date: Tuesday, January 3, 2006 1:17 pm
> Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Food stamps, WIC program and credit card
> acceptance
> To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>
> > On Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at 12:10:22PM -0900, Mike Emers wrote:
> > > WIC vouchers represent about 10%-15% of our farmers' market
> > sales, an
> >
> > I, too, am most appreciative of the WIC dollars I've received.
> >
> > However, the WIC farmer's market program in Texas has evolved
> into
> > primarily a peddler's subsidy and is a subverting influence on
> > honest
> > farmers. Here is how it goes:
> > The program is administered by the Texas Department of Health
> with
> > bureaucrats that, for the most part, have little empathy for
> > honest
> > farmers and little understanding of the conflict between honest
> > farmers
> > and peddlers. In the Dept of Health's view, high redemption
> rates
> > are desirable. They cut funding to areas that have low
> redemption
> > rates and fund areas that have high redemption rates. Anyone
> see
> > where
> > this is going? The low redemption rate areas are likely to be
> > those
> > served only by honest farmers markets and the high rate areas
> are
> > likely to be served by peddler markets. When the areas whose
> > funding
> > has been cut or threatened seek advice from the program
> > administrators,
> > the advice is along these lines: "Keep your markets open year-
> > round,
> > longer hours, more days, etc", "Sell what your customers want:
> out
> > of
> > season tomatoes, out of season peaches, never in season bananas,
> etc".> In the areas where peddlers markets coexist with honest
> markets,
> > the
> > peddlers are likely to out sell to WIC customers by a factor of ten.
> >
> > Here is how I would characterize your typical WIC customer:
> > 1) doesn't want to shop early in the day
> > 2) doesn't know how to cook, or want to cook
> > 3) they want food to be eaten "out of hand", apples, bananas,
> > peaches,
> > etc.
> > Don't get me wrong; we treat our WIC customers very well and we
> > attempt
> > education. But, it seems hopeless.
> >
> > --
> > Willie, ONWARD! Through the fog!
> > http://counter.li.org Linux registered user #228836 since 1995
> > Debian3.0/GNU/Linux system uptime 17 days 3 hours 26 minutes
> > _______________________________________________
> > Market-farming mailing list
> > Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
> >
> > Get the list FAQ at: http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.htm
> >
>
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begin:vcard
n:Swift ;Sabina F
fn:Sabina F Swift PhD
tel;fax:(808)956-9675
tel;work:(808) 956-9208
org:University of Hawaii Manoa;Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences
adr:;;3190 Maile Way St John 307;Honolulu;Hawaii;96822;USA
version:2.1
email;internet:sabina AT hawaii.edu
title:Assistant Specialist
end:vcard



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