Puffin Foundation West as been involved in Farm Fresh Food Security for many years. In fact we started the EBT/SNAP ten dollar match program, whereby if you took ten dollars of your card, Puffin West gave you ten dollars more to spend on fresh veggies and fruit at the Farmers’ Market in Pearl Alley. This too gave the farmers ten more dollars and incentive to come back to town. This program got attention and the City Commissioners took notice and installed a Veggie SNAPS trial program at 5 additional farmers’ markets around town and pledge a total of $5000 to their trial. This year the City will be expanding Veggie SNAPS and Puffin West has consented to roll its continuing grants to both the Pearl Market and potentially the North Market into the Veggie Snaps program, as this will decrease the bureaucracy in running the program, which is always a good thing! and still help combat the issues of fresh food deserts that we have around town. Many groups have taken notice of how attractive fresh foods are that are grown naturally or organically and if you have been following our blogs you will see that we have been supporting additional urban gardeners. If you or your group wish to bring fresh food to the Pearl market and can get a million dollar rider on your own insurance policy (it is not hard or expensive to do but required) please contact Mr. Adam Schroeder, the Market Master at Pearl Market for details, as Puffin West’s grant to Pearl Market will cover the expense of your table. AESchroeder@sidservices.com
