Farm Fresh Rhode Island blog

We jumped into uncharted territory for Rhode Island when we introduced EBT and credit card purchasing at 5 of our farmers’ markets this summer. Three market managers juggled one wireless machine between Brown (Wednesday), Armory Park (Thursday), Downtown (Friday), Hope High (Saturday) and Pawtucket (Sunday). We educated hundreds of customers about these new payment options and taught dozens of our farmers how to accept and be reimbursed for Fresh Bucks, the $5 coins that people received after swiping their cards at the Farm Fresh table.

For people who forgot to bring enough cash, Fresh Bucks were a no-brainer, not any different than an ATM. We were thrilled that credit cards bought 5,000 additional dollars of RI grown foods for the 20 weeks between June 15 and October 31. (If it seems small, consider that farmers’ markets are extremely cash-oriented and this was year one.)

The big unknown was how Food Stamps / EBT customers would respond. Some were already farmers’ market patrons through the WIC program. But the $15 in WIC coupons that low-income mothers receive per season (yes, that’s all) are dollars restricted to farmers’ markets. Could we convince these customers to spend their EBT dollars here, too? EBT can be used at supermarkets, which may not offer cheaper produce but do offer aisles of industrial processed foods that deliver many more calories for the buck than fresh vegetables. (It’s questionable whether maximizing your caloric intake per dollar is necessary or healthy in this country.) How would we reach the remaining EBT customers? Most do not receive WIC, and so may have had no previous reason to come to a RI farmers’ market. They have never before been able to spend their dollars here.

We publicized the markets at Food Stamps offices and through Food Stamp nutrition outreach programs. Word travels fast and the love of fresh foods knows few boundaries. Unfortunately, the EBT machine’s pinpad and cables didn’t get the memo; repeatedly defective equipment nixed our ability to accept EBT for the early summer and almost all of October. Despite that, we did $400 in sales in September!

In the end, there were more problems with the EBT machine malfunctioning than with generating interest from EBT customers. Hopefully the machine problems didn’t deter customers from coming back. We’ll see what happens when EBT and credit card sales resume at the Wintertime Farmers’ Market.