CalFresh dollars are matched at farmers markets, but for how much longer?

The much loved Market Match supplemental nutrition program is under threat due to a proposed budget cut by Governor Gavin Newsom.

photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB

At a farmers market, you’ve got options, both a wide variety of veggies and ways to pay. But one vital option for low income Californians is at risk of disappearing altogether.

At the buzzy Saturday morning Farmers Lane farmers market in Santa Rosa you can find all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables - sprouted cauliflower, gala apples, and plenty of kale.

You might also notice people paying for their veggies with a special kind of paper bill.

It’s part of a program called Market Match.

Minni Forman explained.

"For every dollar that a CalFresh shopper spends at a participating farmer's market, they get an extra dollar that's good just for fruits and vegetables to spend at that market up to a certain daily max," Forman said.

Forman works for Berkeley’s Ecology Center, the non-profit administrating Market Match for the entire state.

Another Market Match stakeholder: Maria Wnorowski, the Farmers Market coordinator at Petaluma Bounty, a community demonstration farm.

"This is like a big social safety net that helps both consumers and also brings money into the local economy," Wnorowski said. "So it's kind of a win-win."

There’s a small team at the Ecology Center that handles high level paperwork with the state, but it’s market ambassadors like Wnorowski who get the program into action on the local level around California.

"We are not necessarily on the ground at the different markets, but help with the back end," Wnorowski said. "So what makes it so much easier for all the different market managers to offer it."

Wnorowski and Petaluma Bounty help coordinate Market Match for 18 different farmers markets in Sonoma County.

What exactly does the process look like at a farmers market though? Forman explained.

"The shopper would swipe their card at the info booth at the market," Forman said. "They would tell the person how much money they would like to take off their card. Let's say it was the daily max is $15. The shopper spends $15 off of their EBT card and they get $15 in EBT tokens. Maybe it's wooden tokens, metal tokens or paper script."

Forman also explained the match part of things.

"Then they get an automatic market match, pretty literal that they get 15 extra dollars that does not come off their card," Forman said. "So they're walking away from the booth with $30 to spend at the market, even though they've only taken $15 off their card."

How the money gets from Sacramento to farmers markets in 39 counties across the state is a bit of a convoluted process, Forman said.

"So it's, it's quite a waterfall, what is called the California Nutrition Incentive Program," Forman said. "That is the bucket which holds the funding for Market Match."

In addition to state money, Market Match also gets matching funds from the US Department of Agriculture, 13 million most recently according to Forman.

Hoping to close the state’s budget gap, Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed slashing 33 of the 35 million dollars which fund the California Nutrition Incentive Program - CNIP - the source of money for Market Match.

With the state money on the line and federal matching funds set to evaporate if Sacramento pulls support, Market Match is in jeopardy according to Forman.

"I'd like to be clear about this," Forman said. "This would be a killing cut for the program."

But the fight in the state capitol is far from finished. Legislators including Assembly-member Damon Connolly are wrestling to extend the program for another three years.

"So we're really urging Governor Newsom, [and] our colleagues in the legislature, to reconsider this proposed cut and prioritize the well being of our most vulnerable populations," Connolly said. "And the sustainability of our local agriculture."

State legislators and Governor Newsom have until June 15th to resolve California’s $27 billion shortfall.

Market Match stakeholders like Forman are hoping legislators like Connolly, and San Francisco's Phil Ting, who helped create CNIP, will preserve the program’s modest funding.

"We would lose 15 years of infrastructure around this program," Forman said. "The networks it took to build this program, the staff, the knowledge would be lost. So I want to be really clear about how serious this is."

Last year, $19 million settled in the pockets of local farmers thanks to CalFresh and Market Match. That translates into 38 million servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Charlie, a farm worker at Penngrove’s Coyote Family Farm uses CalFresh. She said besides helping her make ends meet, Market Match keeps money circulating in the local economy.

"It feels really important to take that federal money and bring it to Sonoma County and to the local farmers," Charlie said. "Some of those people are my friends, and so it feels like a way for some of us, like working class, lower income people to be able to buy that produce that in an expensive place like Sonoma County is going to be more expensive."

Researchers estimate that for every dollar spent, market match generates three dollars for the state economy, and Forman said it’d be hard to pick a worse time to lose the program.

"Between 2019 and 2023, the program almost grew 300%, with the needs from the pandemic growing, the need for fresh food and for food security," Forman said. "In 2023, 2024, in the coming years, we're expecting that need to increase and the program to grow."

Should the $33 million funding cut the Governor has proposed be finalized, Forman estimates Market Match would come to an end by mid 2025.

But for now, Market Match users like Charlie, who said she buys all her produce at farmers markets, will keep swiping their cards and spending their tokens, one bunch of veggies at a time.

"It makes all this food," Charlie said. "This really great food that feels a little inaccessible, it makes it feel more accessible."