Farmers Markets May have to Stop Accepting Food Stamps [View all]

[Leighbythesea]

At the end of this month, hundreds of America’s farmers markets will no longer be able to process payments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps. The change will disproportionately affect markets in states that offer incentives to help low-income consumers buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

The reason for the service cut is not ideology, but bureaucracy. Last fall, the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled its contract with the Farmers Market Coalition, the organization that provides farmers with the hardware and software to accept SNAP payments. Partly as a result, one of the main companies offering this technology, Novo Dia, is canceling its service and going out of business. While this outcome has been clear for months, the USDA’s new contractor has not installed a replacement technology that would allow farmers to keep accepting SNAP payments.

There is no backup option,” said Ben Feldman, policy director for the Farmers Market Coalition. “July and August are the busiest times of the year. Farmers were promised that they would have functioning equipment and they don’t, and right now there’s no program to help them get it.”

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5b48f895e4b022fdcc5941c7

Apologies if someone already posted this.