Celebrating National Farmers Market Week with Market Match: Ensuring Access to Fresh, Local Food for All

It’s National Farmers’ Market Week!

As we celebrate National Farmers Market Week, it’s essential to highlight the vital role that programs like Market Match play in ensuring that everyone has access to fresh, local food. Last week, we had the opportunity to sit down with Andy Naja-Riese and Shayla Sosa from the Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM) to discuss their work in supporting and expanding Market Match programs across the state.

AIM operates 9 Bay Area Farmers Markets, The Rollin’ Root mobile market, Bounty Box, and Diggin’ Education Program. They are a proud Market Match operator, offering this vital service at local farmers markets and mobile farmers markets. Their mission is to educate, inspire, and connect communities, responsible farmers, and producers as part of a healthy, earth-friendly, equitable local and regional food system.

Here are the main takeaways from our uplifting conversation:

What is Market Match?

Market Match is a transformative program designed to make farmers’ markets accessible to everyone, regardless of income.

The program matches customers’ CalFresh nutrition assistance benefits at farmers markets and other farm-direct sites, up to $10 or more per day. The market match amount depends on the farmers market. What that means is for every $10+ of CalFresh dollars someone spends at a participating farmers market, they will receive an additional $10+ to spend on fresh, nutritious produce — making fruits and vegetables more affordable. This program also matches SUN Bucks, allowing summer EBT users to benefit as well!

In 2023 alone, AIM facilitated approximately 44,000 Market Match transactions, ensuring that farm-fresh food reaches those who need it most. Their Rollin’ Root mobile farmers market serves under-resourced areas like San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood and South Hayward, offering an unlimited match with a 50% discount on purchases.

“One of the primary reasons why people with CalFresh shop the farmers market is because of the Market Match program.”

– Andy Naja-Riese, Agricultural Institute of Marin

How Does Market Match Work?

A great feature of Market Match is that if you are already receiving CalFresh benefits, there is no additional process or application that needs to be submitted in order to receive Market Match vouchers or tokens. The best place to start is by visiting FMFinder.org, to understand which farmers markets near you are utilizing the Market Match program. Once you arrive at the farmers market, head to the information booth and ask how to use Market Match. Usually, they will swipe your CalFresh EBT card, and provide some form of token/voucher for you to purchase fruits and vegetables at the market.

This short video, available in English, Spanish, and Chinese, explains the process:

The Importance of Market Match

Market Match is more than just a financial incentive; it supports California’s small farmers by providing funds directly to them. Unlike grocery stores, where farmers receive only a fraction of the retail price, farmers at these markets earn full value for their goods. This income is crucial for small farmers, helping them sustain their operations and continue providing high-quality, local produce.

“We don’t think the farmers should have to cut their prices. They should get paid a fair wage. So Market Match helps to incentivize the costs of local, often organic foods grown here in California.”

– Andy Naja-Riese, Agricultural Institute of Marin

This year, Market Match faced a proposal to drastically cut state funding from $35 million to $1.8 million. Such a reduction would have effectively ended the program. AIM, along with a statewide coalition to Save Market Match, including organizations like the Ecology Center, Hunger Action LA, and Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association, advocated for the program. Their grassroots efforts included lobby days — where upwards of 90 people met with key budget leaders in both the Senate and the Assembly to talk about the importance of the program — letter-writing campaigns, and hearings.  Fortunately, the California legislature restored full funding for Market Match in the final state budget—a HUGE win!  

CAFB celebrates California’s commitment to prioritizing programs that support Californians experiencing hunger and poverty today in our Budget Act of 2024 statement.

We just want to make sure there’s funding available for the communities that want to get healthy, fresh, local food. At a time when food prices are rising and we’re dealing with inflation, we shouldn’t be taking food benefits away from people.”

Andy Naja-Riese, Agricultural Institute of Marin

Join Us in Celebrating

As we celebrate National Farmers Market Week, we invite you to visit your local farmers’ market and support programs like Market Match. If your market doesn’t accept EBT, ask the market manager why. Together, we can make fresh, local food accessible to everyone and support the farmers who make it all possible.

For more information about Market Match, visit the Market Match website. To help spread the word about Market Match, check out the Ecology Center’s Market Match Digital Engagement Toolkit.

And for more information about National Farmers Market Week, check out Farmers Market Coalition’s website!