Providing Access to Healthy Nutritious Foods

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

It's Farmers Market Week in Washington and Karen Kinney, Executive Director of the Washington State Farmers Market Association, says that more and more farmers markets around the state are providing access to healthy nutritious foods to low income shoppers.

KINNEY: USDA and the Washington State Farmers Market Association and many other organizations have been working together to help farmers markets get authorized to accept the SNAP EBT food stamp card. We have been working with a number of markets around the state to help set up incentive programs, and those are programs where a low income shopper can bring their EBT card to the market, swipe it to get tokens to purchase EBT eligible food that's being sold by farmers. And then they get some matching money to be able to use to shop to buy more food. So it's helping to give them more shopping power with their EBT card.

To find a farmers market near you that accepts EBT cards or to find out more about Farmers Market Week visit the Washington State Farmers Market Association website at www.wafarmersmarkets.com.

KINNEY: I just would encourage everybody to make a point of going to their favorite farmers market and trying something new that they've never tasted before to celebrate the bounty of the harvest in our state.

Those markets that are members of the WSFMA will also be handing out recipes that highlight some of the fresh produce available at all farmers markets. You can also view the recipes on the WSFMA website.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.