Families across Louisiana are feeling the strain as uncertainty swirls around SNAP funding.
The impact reaches far beyond the dinner table as local farmers markets, food vendors and nutrition programs are bracing for a major hit.
Heather Robertson has been selling at the Crescent City Farmers Market since it opened, providing people with fresh produce.
“Broccoli was a good thing today. Snap beans, eggplants, we have a little bit of corn,” said Robertson.
She said, in 30 years, business has been good, but now there’s a noticeable change.
“SNAP benefits are, you know, being deplenished because of the government shutdown, so that’s affecting some of our sales,” said Robertson.
Market Umbrella, which operates the Crescent City Farmers Market accepts SNAP benefits, seeing more than $5,000 in SNAP transactions per year.
“We’re evaluating other kinds of programs that we can offer to help kind of buffer that,” said Executive Director Angelina Harrison.
The organization’s longstanding market match program doubles SNAP dollars spent at the markets, allowing those who receive benefits to get more bang for their buck.
“Our nutrition incentive program not only increases the purchasing power of our community members, but it increases the revenue for our small-scale agricultural producers, and then there’s that economic benefit,” said Harrison.
Fourth-generation farmer Ben Burkett is seeing the impacts firsthand.
“They’re trying to stretch it,” said Burkett.
He said although it’s only been a few days, people have been trying to bargain to make ends meet.
“If I say I want $5 for a bunch of greens, they’re now saying, ‘Can I get it for $4?'” said Burkett.
The lifelong farmer understands the domino effect SNAP could have on his business, but said he’s also in the business of helping people, filling the gap when needed.
“We want to do our parts at Farmers. We consider ourselves first responders when it comes to food. So like I said, we’re going to try to do what we can to donate,” said Burkett.
Market Umbrella said it is working within the New Orleans Food Policy Council to compile resources, and constituents within the coalition are also preparing to implement emergency efforts and communicate available resources to affected community members.
“We are monitoring this fluid situation closely, and would anticipate that if benefits are delayed or denied in November, we would be able to offer mutual aid through our markets where shoppers could purchase and donate additional tokens to support shoppers who normally pay with SNAP. We’re also seeking funding to be able to implement additional scrip as a workaround to the SNAP swipe, so that we could distribute funds to shoppers who would normally pay with SNAP to continue purchasing from CCFM vendors. Other efforts are in motion, and FPAC members are quickly pivoting to rise to the occasion — the website I mentioned earlier will include all of these efforts as they emerge,” said Robertson.
The organization has an evolving list of resources on the Louisiana Food Policy Action Council website.
READ MORE:SNAP interruptions impacting farmers market vendors and shoppers
