Marin Voice: Farmers, communities benefit from nutrition incentive programs

With only days remaining until the state Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom finalize the 2023-24 budget, California must continue to fund nutrition incentive programs.

I want to thank our budget leaders, state Sen. Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Phil Ting, for including $35 million in one-time funding for the California Nutrition Incentive Program (CNIP) in the proposed budget. Now we await sign-off from the governor.

The program has supported hundreds of thousands of low-income Californians to purchase locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables at certified farmers markets, farm stands and mobile markets.

Here in Marin County, nutrition incentives make local, healthy, sustainably grown foods more affordable, while offering economic stimulus to small and mid-sized independent farmers.

People who shop with CalFresh (formerly called the food-stamp program) routinely receive extra food when they shop at farmers markets as part of the Market Match program. For instance, at the Agricultural Institute of Marin’s nine Bay Area farmers markets, including our year-round markets at the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael and seasonal markets in Point Reyes and downtown San Rafael, households receive up to $10 per day with Market Match, which can be used to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.

At AIM’s “rollin’ root” mobile farmers market — serving older adult housing sites and communities with limited food access across Fairfax, Novato, San Rafael, Marin City and West Marin — Market Match nourishes residents who otherwise might not have access to affordable, nutritious fruits and vegetables mostly grown on farms certified with organic practices.

In 2022, AIM served over 47,000 shoppers who shopped with CalFresh benefits and received a Market Match, collectively totaling more than $1.2 million in public food benefits spent at local farms. We saw a 31% increase in CalFresh benefits redemption from the previous year, helping shoppers increase their buying power to meet their households’ nutritional needs.

Results from surveys of our CalFresh market shoppers reveal that 96% report that nutrition incentives are important for choosing the farmers market and 89% of report that they attend the market on a weekly basis. Three out of four CalFresh market shoppers purchase more fruits and vegetables each week at our farmers markets because of Market Match.

The benefit is currently the single largest CNIP program, administered through the California Department of Food and Agriculture. A project of the Berkeley-based Ecology Center, Market Match is operated by a consortium of over 60 community-based organizations spanning 38 counties offered at 270 sites, including 16 sites in Marin County.

State CNIP funding helps leverage federal U.S. Department of Agriculture funds by matching nutrition assistance benefits with funds that can be spent by low-income Californians to buy healthy, fresh food grown by California’s small and independently-owned farmers.

The program is a win-win-win: increasing the spending power of low-income Californians, enhancing access to fresh, healthy produce and reinvesting state and federal dollars into California’s small and mid-sized farms and rural communities.

A 2021 report from Colorado State University shows that incentive programs in a farm-direct setting have the highest economic multiplier of 3.0. That means every $1 of incentives spent at a farmers market generates $3 of additional spending in the local economy. That’s more money for local jobs, small food businesses and small farm operations.

Despite the track record and popularity of CNIP, these food access efforts are at risk of collapse if not fully funded. Rising food costs and reductions in federal food benefits due to expiring emergency pandemic funding means that more families with children, people with disabilities and older adults in Marin County, as well as statewide, will face greater pressures to put healthy food on the table.

Workers who earn unlivable wages and communities of color will especially bear the brunt of our hunger crisis.

Without additional state appropriations in the next fiscal year, the Market Match program will not be able to continue past 2024. An investment now of $35 million of state funds into nutrition incentives would allow the program to leverage significant federal funds into the state. I hope we can count on Newsom’s support.

Consistent access to healthy, local food should be a human right, not a privilege.

Andy Naja-Riese, of San Rafael, is CEO of the Agricultural Institute of Marin.