Council Funding of EBT Machines shows huge gains at the City’s Greenmarkets

CITY HALL – Speaker Christine C. Quinn, together with Council Member Miguel Martinez, Marcel Van Ooyen, Executive Director of the Council on the Environment of NYC, Ben Thomases, New York City’s Food Policy Coordinator and Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, today released a report highlighting the tremendous success of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) stations, scanners that allow New Yorkers to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables with food stamps at Greenmarkets throughout the City.

Families that qualify for federal food stamp aid often live in neighborhoods with limited access to the nutritious food they need to support a healthy lifestyle. In 2000, when food stamps transitioned from paper coupons to the paperless EBT card, the problem grew more severe because many farmers’ markets were unable to accept food stamps.

In 2006, Speaker Quinn and the City Council allocated funding for EBT scanners, signage, community outreach and a dedicated staff member to operate the machines at four Greenmarkets around the City. The program proved an immediate success, most notably at the Poe Park Greenmarket in the Bronx where the amount of food stamps being used grew from almost nothing to over $500 a day. As a result, the Council increased funding to $270,000 the following fiscal year.

The numbers don’t lie: in July of 2007, $5,980 in fresh food was purchased with food stamps at Greenmarkets with EBT stations. This year the number jumped to $10,043. August numbers grew from $9,706 to $20,675, more than double the amount of just a year earlier. September’s numbers continued the trend, totaling over $28,000. In fact, Poe Park Market recorded the largest one day total of any Greenmarket EBT station, hitting $2,700 in fruit and vegetable sales. October sales totaled nearly $27,000.

“The success of this program has been tremendous,” said Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “Our City’s Greenmarkets provide fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables that may not be widely available in some neighborhoods. But because of the success of this program, we are getting this produce to the people that need it, and we’re helping out our local farmers. This is the very definition of win-win.”

“These numbers prove that communities all over New York demand access to healthy foods,” said Council Member Miguel Martinez. “The more we can create opportunities to buy fresh fruits and vegetables in low income communities, the more we can improve the health and general well being of New Yorkers who have been hit the hardest with health problems related to obesity.”

“New Yorkers deserve to have access to nutritious foods. Unfortunately, healthy foods aren’t available everywhere in our city. Luckily greenmarkets are helping close that gap. Now anyone who wishes to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, even if all they have are food stamps, can do so at most green markets, and clearly people are taking advantage it,” said Chair of City Council Health Committee, Hon. Joel Rivera.

In 2007, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) piloted the EBT incentive component of its Health Bucks program. Through this program, EBT users received a $2 Health Bucks coupon for every $5 they spent at participating farmers’ markets. The pilot project was overwhelmingly popular with EBT users, which led to early morning lines and a shortage of coupons at markets where Health Bucks were offered. In response to the demand and importance of encouraging Food Stamp recipients to eat more fruit and vegetables, the New York City Human Resources Administration added $225,000 – a ten-fold increase in the EBT incentive.

“It is exciting to see the Health Bucks incentive promoting such dramatic growth of EBT spending at farmers’ markets. This is a clear indication that there is demand for healthy foods in low-income communities,” said the City’s Food Policy Coordinator Ben Thomases. “Along with Green Carts and the Healthy Bodegas initiative, ensuring that EBT cards are accepted at Greenmarkets is a great way to guarantee that all New Yorkers have access to fresh, nourishing foods in their own communities.”

Greenmarkets has organized and managed open-air farmers markets in New York City since 1976, promoting regional agriculture and ensuring a continuing supply of fresh, local produce for New Yorkers. Greenmarket supports farmers and preserves farmland for the future by providing regional small family farmers with opportunities to sell their fruits, vegetables and other farm products to New Yorkers.

“We are extremely grateful to Speaker Quinn and the City Council for making CENYC’s food stamp in the farmers market project a huge success,” said Marcel Van Ooyen, Executive Director of Council on the Environment of NYC. “Each year EBT sales at our Greenmarkets have gone up dramatically. And as a result, we are protecting more family owned farms, preserving additional farmland and providing access to the freshest, healthiest produce to more New Yorkers. In these difficult economic times, it becomes even more vital to support hunger and food access programs and we congratulate the Speaker for her dedication to these efforts, dedication that is clearly paying off at Greenmarket and around the city.”

“Hunger and obesity are often flip sides of the same malnutrition coin. When nutritious food is either physically unavailable or economically unaffordable for low-income New Yorkers, they obviously can’t eat it,” said Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. “This vital effort addresses both hurdles at once, by providing access to fresh produce and making it affordable. We are extraordinarily grateful to Speaker Quinn and the entire Council for their visionary leadership in this highly successful effort to simultaneously fight hunger and obesity.”

“Being able to use foods stamps at the Greenmarkets has enabled me to eat fresher, healthier food,” said Patricia Cassidy, a shopper at the Mount Sinai Greenmarket in East Harlem. “Nutrition is a vital part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and the EBT stations really help me stretch my budget.”

“This is a very good idea and very good for farmers,” said New Farmer Development Program (NFDP) farmer Sergio Nolasco of Nolasco’s Farm. “We are making more money, and more people are coming to the market because they know that they can use their food stamps. Last year I was selling a little with tokens. Now I make $100 to $150 per market.”

Mr. Nolasco sells vegetables at the Jackson Heights, Poe Park, and 175th Street Greenmarkets, all of which have EBT stations.