Foods stamps come to more farmer's markets

The federal Food Stamp Program is helping New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Michigan and other states provide handheld wireless terminals for electronic benefit transfers--the modern debit card version of food stamps--to farmers markets at no extra cost. Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont and other states plan to equip more markets to accept the cards this year.

It can't come soon enough for people like Wilfred Negron.

Negron shops for groceries for his family in Brooklyn using an EBT card to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, but he said he would rather use his card to buy produce at a farmer's market. He said the nearby stores don't offer the same kind of variety.

"When you do shop at the grocery store, it's very limited--they don't have a very wide selection," he said. "I think if we had a farmers market, I think we would shop more, and eat more produce."

On the other side of the counter are farmers like Richard Hayberger in Hamlin, N.Y. Hayberger said he makes an extra $500 a month from Rochester-area farmers markets because of the wireless program that has brought him more customers.

"The market's much, much busier. I'm impressed," he said.

In 2007, 40 markets in New York state accepted food stamps. This year, 87 of the state's approximately 400 markets are equipped to sell food to families using the EBT cards, said Diane Eggert, executive director of the Farmers' Market Federation of New York. Food stamp sales at New York farmers markets have increased statewide from $3,000 in 2002 to $90,000 in 2007, she said.

Massachusetts has expanded from five markets to seven that accept EBT cards wirelessly, Vermont planned to go from three markets with wireless access in 2007 to nine in 2008, and Michigan went from two farmers markets accepting food stamps to eleven in 2007.

"We're already outpacing 2007, so I think we're going to see significant growth," Eggert said.