Growing food access in SLO County

In 2014 Shannon Klisch started her work at University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in San Luis Obispo. Previous to her time there, she worked for the Department of Public Health, which is where she first heard of the Food System Coalition (FSC), but had not yet been to any meetings.

When she met a colleague at UCCE who was an active participant in the FSC, she learned more and soon began attending meetings and familiarizing herself with the work of the group.

Being a strong advocate for increasing food access and food equity, she was excited to start working with the EBT at Farmers Markets work group, which helps Calfresh holders use their benefits at our local Farmers Markets. At the time, in about 2017, there were few markets that were able to accept, CalFresh, and even fewer that offered market incentives to CalFresh users. Only those markets with managers who wanted to take on such a project were able to accept benefits.

The Farmers Market Manager booth at Baywood.

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Among those managers are Robyn Gable of North County Farmers Market Association, and Jeff Nielsen of Cambria, Morro Bay, Farm Supply and Downtown SLO Farmers Markets, and Linda Larsen of Paso Farm and Craft Market. These managers, with the support of their boards and managers who came before them, have worked to get EBT accepted at their markets, despite the extra administrative requirements.

They (market managers) do this work because they care about it. They are champions of local food access for everyone in the community and they know that, even if offering CalFresh acceptance is not profitable in the first year, it does bring in more customers and more money to the market over time. - Shannon Klisch, UCCE

The managers got a boost in 2018 when the work group got more partners, funding for print materials and ads (like the poster at left), and were able to create outreach materials, including a focus group guide. This allowed the work group to go out and interview Calfresh recipients to understand what barriers there were to shopping at Farmers Markets locally.

Some of that feedback revealed that using Calfresh at Farmers Markets was complex. It was not clear which markets accept CalFresh, which items could be purchased with CalFresh tokens, and which markets had the market incentive program Market Match, which provides extra money for CalFresh users to spend at the market.

Based on their findings, the group has goals to make using CalFresh as feasible as possible for both market managers and Calfresh holders, which is why they have created educational materials to help guide participants through the market shopping experience. Providing this information before participants go shopping minimizes confusion and maximizes dignity.

Ideally, every certified farmers market in the county would allow customers to use their CalFresh card to buy produce. If there was more consistency and access, it would take away some of the confusion and uncertainty that people face when they go to use their CalFresh card. - Shannon Klisch, EBT @ Farmers Markets Work Group Chair

The EBT at Farmers Markets work group also understands that to increase access to fresh food, they would need to assist Farmers Market managers in the EBT program administration. The work group connects managers to state-level support that can assist with applications, getting a point of service machine (in some cases), and technical assistance.

In order to convince more markets to offer EBT, the work group demonstrates the financial benefit to the markets, the farmers, and the community, which is significant. Since 2017, $265k has been infused into our local economy!

With representatives from various agencies in the county, this work group has made serious headway over the past 4 years. Statistics like a 90% increase in Calfresh and Market Match redemption, and 42 client-serving organizations receiving outreach materials, demonstrate just how much impact the group has had on the community, not to mention individual users!

There was this customer who came to the market. They were so down, ‘I haven’t had food for a week, I have been out of money and out of work.’ They came to swipe their card, and had like 350$ in there because of the extra money for EBT (during the pandemic). And they just started crying they were so happy to have that money in there so they could eat. And, it just makes you feel good that you can do what you do. - SLO County Farmers Market manager on being able to accept CalFresh at Farmers Markets during the COVID-19 pandemic

The EBT at Farmers Markets working group looks forward to expanding efforts into south county markets to reach more EBT users!

If you are interested in this work and would like to volunteer, please contact Shannon!

And! Mark your calendars for the first week of August to celebrate National Farmers Market Week with a few fun activities at your favorite market!