Harrison and Em got into growing food after transforming their .1 acre lot into a vegetable garden in 2015. Since then they’ve been building their skill and knowledge in growing vegetables, and now primarily mushrooms. 

This is their first year as full-time farmers. As a new, small farm, OneUp Farm can’t compete with larger operations that are producing thousands of pounds of mushrooms each week. “They are selling in the wholesale market at about 25% of the cost that OneUp is selling at. We can’t sell at that price and make ends meet,” Harrison says. This is one reason why selling direct to consumers at farmers markets is so important to their farm. 

While Harrison and Em work on growing their small business, they are SNAP participants themselves. Harrison said that it has really helped them as Double Up vendors to have the Double Up shopper perspective as well. “Double Up Food Bucks really helps us as a small farm because it gives that accessibility and increases our customer base significantly. As users of Double Up, we really love that it stretches our dollars further.” 

Being program participants, they understand some of the challenges that shoppers can face when spending SNAP and Double Up at the market. “There is a little bit of planning involved when we go to get our SNAP tokens and our DUFB.” Harrison and Em try to make that planning a little easier on their customers as well by pricing items in $2 or $4 increments (Double Up cards come in $2 increments and Farm Direct checks come in $4 increments, and change cannot be given for either). 

“One of the reasons we became farmers is because we believe in food justice and believe all people should be able to eat good food. Double Up Food Bucks makes it a lot more accessible for people to go to the market and get what they want. It makes it available for farmers/vendors to work in these types of settings where they can afford to sell.”

Keep up with OneUp Farm on Facebook @oneupfarmpdx and instagram @oneupfarm!

Florence Farmers Market just celebrated their 5th anniversary, and it is also their 5th season offering Double Up Food Bucks! The market is truly by and for the community in Florence, and was formed by a group of residents who really wanted a place for folks to come together and for growers to sell their products. 

Even today, the market continues to be very volunteer driven, and the hard work of their market manager and volunteers has grown the Double Up Food Bucks program at their market by 258% since their first year in 2018! It’s clear that their variety of community programs and their focus on hyper-local food producers has created a market that feels welcoming and accessible.

Florence Farmers Market may be on the smaller side, but there will always be something new to explore! The market keeps small producers and hobby growers involved through their Community Table program. Here, folks are able to sell the produce they grow in their gardens, or try out their hand at farming on a small scale without much risk. In that spirit, the market also offers a Visiting Vendors program. Each week they have a different visiting vendor. This allows for lots of fun variety in the market, and gives space for small vendors who may not have the capacity to be at the market every single week. Past visiting vendors include crowd favorites like blueberry vendors, a local organic noodle producer, and a farm that sells hazelnuts and bison. 

Fresh, local food is not the only thing to enjoy at the market. Their Local Matters program brings in folks from the community once a month to share their knowledge on a variety of topics, such as keeping bees or growing mushrooms. Through their Veggie Rx Produce Prescription program, they have folks from Peace Health at the market giving cooking demos every other week, showing folks how to use the fresh produce they find at the market. Of course, the mood is set each week by a local musician, helping to create an overall fun event with a little something for everyone. 

Visit the Florence Farmers Market in Old Town Florence at the intersection of Kingwood & Bay Streets on Tuesdays from 3-6pm now through October 18th. 

Curious about what will be at market in the coming week? Sign up for their newsletter at their website to stay updated!

Our Program Coordinator, Mallory, had the chance to talk with Jaimie Griffin (she/her), The Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market’s (RVGCM) new Executive Director. Jaimie shared about the 3 markets that RVGCM operates, the challenges the community has faced over the past few years, and some exciting things to look forward to this season!  

Mallory: Tell me a little bit about the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market: 

Jaimie: It’s our 35th season this year! We started under the umbrella of the Grants Pass market, and eventually grew and broke off into our own organization 

We have 3 outdoor markets – Tuesday, Saturday in Ashland, and Thursday in Medford

We also have an Indoor winter market that’s been going on for 4 seasons. 

This year we have a new Tuesday Ashland market location coming this summer on the SOU campus. 

Mallory: What can shoppers expect when they come to the market? 

Jaimie: When customers come our to our markets they can expect to find the freshest produce, meats, and cheeses with farmers and ranchers who love to educate their customers about their growing/ranching practices and how to prepare the goods.  A large range of crafters from blown glass to pottery and body care products.  You’ll find artisan food and coffee vendors, small batch salsas and hot sauces, radish kimchi, miso, and a variety of local food trucks.  We even have local musical entertainers and a balloon animal clown for the children.  Our Thursday Medford Market is nestled in Hawthorne Park, where there’s a splash pad for the children to play in during the summer months.  Our new Tuesday Ashland market location features many beautiful trees that customers will be able to eat their lunches under they got from the market.  Our markets are fun for the whole family! 

Mallory: In past years, RVGCM has waited until June to begin offering DUFB, can you tell me a little about this earlier start and what it means for your community? 

Jaimie: I started in this role last October at the end of the season. I really was able to hear the large response from the community members how much this program benefits them, so my goal this year was to start offering Double Up as early as possible. 

Mallory: Why is SNAP/DUFB important to your market? 

Jaimie: Rogue Valley has faced so many issues these past several years with the wild fires, droughts, and COVID. As a result, there are many more families experiencing food insecurity and more challenges that the farmers are facing.

Mallory: What are you most looking forward to this coming season? 

Jaimie: I’m new, so I’m most looking forward to growing the market through the new Tuesday location, and being able to offer DUFB for longer in the season!

Mallory: What makes the Ashland and Medford farmers markets special? 

Jaimie: The markets are such a centerpiece in the community. We have a great customer base, and I feel like it provides a great community aspect for Ashland. 

If you are in the beautiful Rogue Valley this market season, pay a RVGCM market a visit and tell them we sent you!

The Montavilla Farmers Market (MFM), located East of Mount Tabor on SE Stark street, was started in July 2007 by a group of volunteers in the neighborhood and with support from the Montavilla Business Association. The market began with 17 vendors, and over the years has grown to 77 individual vendors each year. In 2020, the market was able to double their footprint and expand from a seasonal market to a year-round market. With this expansion, MFM has been able to establish itself even further as a hub for folks to come together, get to know each other, and support each other. 

Shoppers who visit the market will find a huge variety of fruits, vegetables, flowers, baked goods and other sundries. Those who stop by the info booth will be greeted by Jeff (he/him), who MFM manager, Lisa Hall (she/her) tells me has built strong bonds with so many of the regular shoppers who come to get their SNAP and DUFB tokens each week. “He is really great at getting to know folks and understanding their needs,” Lisa says. In the spring the market is bursting with plant starts that shoppers can bring home to grow produce in their own gardens. The relationship between vendors and shoppers is more than just transactional. A vendor shared a story with Lisa recently about one of their customers who purchased a pepper plant start, and later gifted them a jar of hot sauce made from the harvest as a thank you. 

Lisa tells me that one piece of feedback she receives again and again is how strong the community bond is amongst the vendors and the shoppers. “One thing I think is super special about the market is that all of our vegetable farmers actually come to the market. We have a lot of small farms, which I think is really cool.” MFM truly values supporting small farms. Apart from the support that Double Up Food Bucks offers their vendors, MFM has also implemented a Beginning Farmer Reduced stall fee to help make it easier for beginning farmers who are just starting out. Starting in early 2022, they will start a similar program for new BIPOC-owned businesses. Vendors that are within their first 5 years of operation will be eligible for the reduced stall fee, opening the door for a more diverse and vibrant marketplace. 

Vendors at the market are consistently making moves to support the shopper and each other. One farmer at the market has set up a donation jar at their checkout where shoppers can drop their spare change to support the Double Up Food Bucks program. Lisa says that MFM’s vendors understand and appreciate how much DUFB supports them, and they want to give back to the shoppers and support the program too. Another farmer has recently been donating leftover produce at the end of the day to Mixteca, one of the hot food vendors that regularly attends the market. 

Montavilla Farmers Market is a great example of a beautiful interwoven network of market board and staff, vendors, shoppers, and neighbors all supporting and uplifting each other. Everyone involved strengthens the market community through their mutual support of one another, and it really shows. See for yourself! In December you can visit Montavilla Farmers Market at 7700 SE Stark Street on Sunday 12/12 or 12/19, and they will be open on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month from January – April 2022. 

Written by Mallory Watson, FMF Program Coordinator

The Klamath Falls Farmers Market began 22 years ago when a few small farmers in the area came together looking for a better way to sell their products. Back then, it was more of a farm stand than a farmers market. There were no programs, no market manager, no board of directors, but even in its nascent form, the market embodied the same spirit it does today – a grass roots market with a strong community of local producers and shoppers. 
 
The market continued in this pop-up fashion through the 80’s and 90’s until a couple of local farmers realized that in order to make the market more attractive to shoppers, they needed some programs and a bit more structure to the organization. The market was 100% volunteer run, and it continues to be (although the manager now receives a weekly stipend during the market season). Over the next couple of years, they built the market out by bringing in music, hot food vendors, and local artisans. In 2004 they became a public benefit 501(c)3 organization.
 
Their current manager, Charlie Wyckoff, came on in 2009. He took the market’s role as a public benefit organization seriously back then, and he still does today. The first thing he did was to figure out what else they could do to live up to that designation. The market applied to accept SNAP that year and began accepting it in 2010. He also began working to make sure their farmers were taken care of…”It’s tough to be a farmer in this region,” he tells me. “We’re at 4,000 feet. The best we can do is get our existing producers to produce more. Our goal is to assist them and support them in scaling up.” The market still offers a lot of support for vendors, they keep a close watch on USDA programs like the USDA high tunnel program to help farmers extend the growing season and expand their businesses.
 
They also really value their SNAP program, “For me, [SNAP] is the most important program we do,” says Charlie. The market has always worked hard to have a SNAP matching program as well. They participated in DUFB in 2017, and they are re-joining the program again this year. Charlie tells me that the organization doesn’t often go for larger grants. True to their roots, they tend to focus on gaining local support. In the past, they have done this through the Lemonade Project, which they adapted from Brookings Farmers Market. They sell lemonade at the market and use the profits to self-fund SNAP matching programs.
 
This year they are excited to get their Lemonade Project up and running again and will use the funds to help support a supplemental “Protein bucks” program. Along with their $10 DUFB SNAP match for produce, shoppers will be able to receive an additional $2 match per day to spend on meat, eggs, and honey at the market. Charlie hopes that the Lemonade Project will allow them to offer even more of that supplemental match as the season progresses.
 
If you’re in the area this summer, Klamath Falls Farmers Market is a must-visit! Go pay them a visit to Double Up and stock up on plant starts, fresh produce, pastured meats, eggs, honey, and more. And don’t forget to grab a cup of lemonade!

This year marks the La Grande Farmers Market’s 40th Anniversary. Over these past 40 years, the market has built a strong connection to its community by supporting small, local farmers, and keeping its residents supplied with fresh, delicious food! When they began offering Double Up Food Bucks 5 years ago, they were able to provide even more support for the community. “We enjoy providing fresh local produce to everybody, not just those who can afford it,” says their market manager, Jessica Bogard. “La Grande is rural, so a high percentage of people use the program and need it. Unemployment in the area is very high right now. [DUFB] makes it so that folks can shop at the market.” One way they are making food more accessible during the pandemic is by offering online pre-order and curbside pickup.

It’s not just shoppers who benefit from this program, though. Jessica tells me that in light of COVID-19, “It’s been challenging at the market. Vendors have been hit hard. Restaurant accounts are not an option.” It’s a story that we’ve heard time and again since the pandemic hit, but it’s been an especially big hurdle for this rural community. When COVID-19 first hit, Jessica tells me that people were scared, and the sales at the market took a dip. This really impacted their vendors. Some vendors weren’t able to participate in the market this year due to pandemic-related issues. For the vendors who are coming to market each week, “[Double Up] is keeping farmers afloat,” Jessica tells me.

In speaking with Jessica, it’s clear that the market is a reflection of the town as a whole: a tight-knit, rural community that looks out for one another. “La Grande is a great small town and we have a ton of support from our city and county and customers. We don’t get the huge numbers that other places do, but we have great support, and we appreciate that.”

Written by Mallory Watson, FMF Program Coordinator

On their farm just outside Portland in Helvetia, co-owners Aaron and Jesse Nichols and their crew grow produce year-round. Fruits and vegetables make up the majority of the products they sell, but they also raise turkeys. Aaron says they do this to have animals on the land to eat vegetable scraps, help with weed and pest management and to help create rich compost to feed back into the soil. (They also feel good about giving a good life to 100 or so turkeys each holiday season). While the organic certification process is cost-prohibitive for them, they follow many of the guidelines and use natural pest control methods, which you can learn more about here.

Stoneboat has been involved in some sort of SNAP match program since they started selling at farmers markets 6 years ago. Aaron says that he’s always seen a positive benefit to his sales as a result. “I would give [food] to people if I knew they needed it, but this way it’s more accessible because they don’t have to ask,” he tells me. He likes to make it worthwhile and welcoming for SNAP shoppers at the market, and makes sure they are getting their money’s worth by rounding up with produce. If someone only wants $1.50 worth of something, he’ll give them a few more items to make up the other $.50. He says that shoppers show so much appreciation for the program, and he appreciates them, too!

In addition to the matching program at the market, Stoneboat is also involved in the CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, matching program where a match of up to $200 is provided. Traditionally CSA shares are paid for in full at the beginning of the growing season, but for this program monthly payments are withdrawn from the customer’s SNAP account throughout the season. Aaron says he really gets to know his CSA members, and he can see directly how they benefit from getting fresh veggies each week through his interactions with them. DUFB CSA members have also been some of his most dedicated customers, returning year after year for the CSA program.

In addition to his work running Stoneboat Farm, Aaron is also a member on the board of the Hollywood Farmers Market.  Before Double Up Food Bucks, he says the board was responsible for raising the money to fund their SNAP match program, but now that they have this funding from FMF, they are able to focus on widening their reach even further. This year they will have the space to fundraise to provide vouchers to residents in low income housing near the market, bringing fresh, local food to more people in Portland!

People’s Farmers’ Market, which proudly bills itself as the longest-running year-round farmers market in Portland, has a long history with SNAP matching. It has offered its customers an additional $5 match when they spent $5 in SNAP benefits at the market since 2013. The farmers market also has the second-highest SNAP spending in the state!

In 2015, the Farmers Market Fund convened a coalition of markets in the Portland metro area to secure a federal grant to double that SNAP match to $10 per customer. SNAP usage skyrocketed when the match grew from $5 to $10. Vendors noticed that increasing the match to $10 meant customers increased how much they spent with SNAP benefits at their booths.

By the time the federal funding ran out in 2017, the market needed to find a new way to help its customers’ SNAP benefits go further. People’s market manager Ashley Todd had noticed the positive impact the additional $5 specifically brought to her customers and her vendors. “With an average of 65 families per week at a year-round market supporting 30 small-scale, family farmers and food producers, we knew we had to maintain our $10 match.” So they decided to fund it themselves.

Ashley and the team at the Co-op decided to include a $10 match as part of their operating expense budget for 2018 and sought round-up donations at the Co-op’s cash registers. They also sell merchandise and accept donations online to fund the SNAP match. Vendors even unanimously agreed to raise their booth fees to fund the $10 match. “Vendors knew the extra $5 to $10 a week they spent in booth fees would come right back to them—but they also realized that greater food access and more food dollars benefit the whole community,” Ashley said. The program was so successful—the co-op spent nearly $24,000 on it in 2018—that it wasn’t sustainable for them to continue funding it this way. Fortunately, in 2019, things changed.

After persistent and collaborative advocacy led by the Farmers Market Fund, the state legislature approved a historic measure to expand Double Up Food Bucks just as the doors closed on dramatic legislative session. More than 50 markets across the state, as well as grocery stores and farm share programs, will now be able to offer a $10 match to all their customers paying with SNAP, supporting food access in the community and the livelihoods of small-scale farmers.

However, while that $1.5 million appropriation from the state represented a major win for Double Up—and the first time the state has invested in the program—it was only half of the $3 million initially requested. Farmers Market Fund hopes to continue to grow its resources so it can replicate the success of the People’s Farmers’ Market’s $10 match at more of Oregon’s 124 farmers markets.

Back at People’s, Ashley knows more funding for Double Up will help make farmers markets more inclusive across the state. Despite the People’s Farmers’ Market’s high SNAP usage, farmers markets and food co-ops are often perceived as expensive and privileged spaces, and Double Up helps address that barrier.

“Lots of families and elder folks using Double Up tell me they’re on a limited income,” said Ashley. “But the SNAP match program helps people know this space is accessible to them and that our co-op is trying to make food more affordable for people.”

– Written by Love Jonson

You’ll find Charlie Tenenbaum most Sunday mornings at the King Farmers Market, just a few blocks from their Northeast Portland home. (As a transgender individual, Charlie uses they/them pronouns). An avid fermenter, Charlie recently picked up some kohlrabi, bok choi, and daikon radishes to make into kimchi. With the market closed for the winter, they have also squirreled away a stash of onions, delicata squash, and greens for the freezer to help hold them over until the market reopens in the spring.

Charlie relies on the Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) program to be able to purchase produce at the farmers market. Using their Oregon Trail Card, Charlie can receive an extra $10 per week to purchase fresh fruits and veggies to help make their very limited disability payments and SNAP benefits stretch further. The produce they get at the market helps them feel healthier as they manage their chronic pain that prevents them from being fully employed.

Being able to shop at the farmers market plays an outsized role in their life. With post-traumatic stress disorder gained from relief work in post-earthquake Haiti, Charlie gets agitated in indoor supermarkets, and feels much more comfortable shopping in an outdoor venue.

Patronizing the farmers market also makes Charlie feel like they don’t have to compromise their values to feed themselves. They have a deep background in sustainability. Before they became disabled, Charlie worked on biodiversity and food justice issues through their efforts at seed libraries, CSA farms, and the Denver Botanic Gardens. They started down this path while in college, interning at a USDA seed bank working on biodiversity protection.

Charlie knows what it is like to not be able to afford the food that is best for their health or spirit. Homeless for a stretch, living out of their car, Charlie didn’t have a place to cook. They found themselves purchasing unhealthy, inexpensive, and ready to eat food that was detrimental to their health and contrary to their values.

As a result, Charlie feels a deep sense of gratitude for the Double Up Food Bucks for its positive impact on their health and spirit.

– Written by Andy Fisher, Farmers Market Fund Board member

For Hollywood Farmers Market coordinator Ari Rosner, Double Up Food Bucks served as a way to extend one market’s successful SNAP matching program to a second market. In 2010, before the Double Up Food Bucks program began, the Hollywood Farmers Market in Portland began matching shoppers’ SNAP tokens up to $5 — and with the support of  Farmers Market Fund, the program was able to spread to Hollywood’s sister market, the Lloyd Farmers Market.

When Hollywood Farmers Market took over management of the Lloyd Farmers Market seven years ago, Lloyd had no way to accept SNAP, let alone match it. As both markets joined the Double Up Food Bucks program, each could to offer a $10 match — double what Hollywood had been able to offer and, in total, $20 more in than Lloyd SNAP shoppers could previously use.

For the Hollywood market, a large and visible mainstay in the neighborhood, word of mouth was enough to spread awareness about matching programs. In the Lloyd district, the market had to start from scratch to get the word out, since it had very little existing engagement with low-income neighbors.

The Lloyd market targeted their outreach to public housing, senior communities, and other low-income residents in the neighborhood. Market staff visited buildings, spoke to neighbors, answered questions, and helped folks understand the different benefit programs they could use at market.

Rosner has seen roaring increases in SNAP use each year — both throughout the economic recession and, importantly, even as the economy has rebounded.

“Even with the economic recovery, there have been solid increases every year, as more people who have been left behind by the recovery are discovering that they can stretch their dwindling dollars even further by coming to the farmers market.”

Shoppers’ satisfaction with SNAP matching are backed by both informal conversations and hard numbers: the number of SNAP transactions at markets has increased by 39%, and 90% of SNAP customers reported purchasing more fruits and vegetables. In the past, some shoppers have had to eat whatever was cheapest at the grocery store, but now, Rosner’s customers tell him they can buy organic produce and make connections with farmers — things they didn’t think they’d be able to do on SNAP.

In surveys, a significant majority of SNAP shoppers say matching helps them stretch their benefit dollars later in the month, alleviating the cycle SNAP recipients face in which the fridge runs empty by before the next benefit cycle. 81% of shoppers report that DUFB has increased the amount of food in their house.

“They go hungry less, which is really what this is all about,” said Rosner.

– Written by Love Jonson, Food Systems Writer and Editor