Doubling your money when you are buying groceries is a reality for shoppers in the Double Up Food Bucks program. It launched recently in the St. Louis area, and is funded, in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and by private donors to benefit SNAP recipients and to sell produce from local fruit and vegetable growers.
“The Double Up Food Bucks program is a program for SNAP recipients at farmer’s markets and grocery stores to get more money to spend on fruits and vegetables,” said Brian DeSmet, program manager, Missouri Double Up Food Bucks.
At the farmer’s market, DeSmet said shoppers use their EBT card to purchase SNAP tokens, and they get a matching amount of Double Up Food Bucks tokens to spend on fruits and vegetables.
“We do it up to $25 each day, so if they give $5, we give $10, and it’s two different types of tokens so they can spend on different things,” he explained. “SNAP tokens can be spent on anything that is SNAP-eligible. Double Up Food Bucks tokens can be spent on fruits and vegetables.”
Renee and Marcus McMiller learned about doubling their food bucks when they were hunting for the perfect green tomatoes to fry from the Ferguson Farmer’s Market.
Renee “I’m going to see how this works,” Renee McMiller said about Double Up Food Bucks program – with her eyes fixed the unripe fruit from Cascade Farms. “We are just going to buy these tomatoes over here.”
The program works a little differently in participating grocery stores.
At the grocery stores … they buy up to $25 of local produce on their card, and they get a coupon or voucher that they can spend on produce from anywhere,” DeSmet said. “That can be used when local produce is not in season, later in the season. You don’t have to use it that day, so people can use it later in the month when the EBT card is down.”
Currently, City Greens, Local Harvest Grocery and the mobile St. Louis MetroMarket are participating grocers.
“We’re working, trying to get in the City Plaza store at Schnucks ready for the program. That is at Union and Natural Bridge; that’s going to be our pilot store for them,” DeSmet said. “Once we get it implemented there, there’s about four other stores we’re going to expand to.”
Farmer’s markets participating in Double Up Food Bucks are located in Ferguson, two in St. Louis – North City and Tower Grove; Webster Groves, Salem and DeSoto, Missouri.
Brittany Tru Campbell, of EarthDance Organic Farm School, is also a midwife who knows the importance of good nutrition. She also buys local produce for her family through the double bucks program. She explained that even with the SNAP program, dollars must be stretched to make it work.
“The federal guidelines are around each person in the household receives $4 a day to eat on,” Campbell said. She learned out about the Double Up Food Bucks program at the Schlafly Farmer’s Market in Maplewood.
“So I would go there – I would get my poultry, my eggs, my vegetables – everything, and my bread, and prior to that, I would buy my food at the grocery store and a lot of it was not fresh … it was being shipped from all around the country,” Campbell said. “So not only was I able to get double the amount from the benefits that I got – I also felt better internally about supporting local farmers – being able to talk to them about where the food comes from. And I also felt like a better mom that I was able to feed my children food that came from the local area.”
DeSmet said the Double Up Food Bucks program includes farmer’s markets and grocery stores across Kansas and Missouri, and they want to keep it going beyond the three-year grant and expanding the program.
“We expect right now, there is 42 farmers markets in the program in Kansas and Missouri. We expect that will be at least 68 by the end of the program,” he said. “And up to 117 grocery stores in the Kansas City – St. Louis area will be running the program, but it’s going to take us a little while to get there.”
A little while is just fine, since doubling your money on healthy food is always in season.
For more information on participating groceries and farmer’s market locations, visit www.DoubleUpHeartland.org.
