At the Elmwood Village Farmers
Market, lower income shoppers buy twice the amount of locally-grown produce
using the Double Up Food Bucks program. The
program matches SNAP benefits, formerly called food stamps, dollar to dollar
exclusively for fruits and vegetables. Lisa
Tucker French, co-founder and executive director of Field and Fork Network, the
organization that expanded the program to Western New York, says it is a way to
direct more federal money into the local food economy. Christina Fitzpatrick, a
worker at Dan Tower Farm in Youngstown, says the farm’s vendor booth receives
enough of the Double Up money to fill a bucket by the end of its shift every
time at the Elmwood market. By Francesca Bond and Alex Silvia
