HARDWICK – Low income Vermonters’ received $10,310 of farm-fresh food from Hardwick Farmers Market vendors in 2025 through programs to supplement their purchase of food.
photo by Kelly Bogel Stokes
Those programs include the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Crop Cash and Crop Cash Plus.
VERMONT – In 2023, a Vermont nonprofit launched a program to make it easier for people receiving food assistance to shop at local farmers markets. By matching SNAP benefits, Crop…
“This program and its associated incentives brought $10,310 to our farm and food vendors, which was nearly 10% of the total sales for the year,” said Local Food Coordinator and Hardwick Farmers Market Manager Hayley Williams with the Center for an Agricultural Economy.
Sales at the market have steadily grown over the past four years. “Our vendor’s total sales have been increasing consistently from 70k in 2022 to 120k last year,” she added.
Sales of agricultural products have similarly grown, from $25,000 to $36,000 during that time.
Williams said the impact of SNAP benefits has been growing too, with $2,169 redeemed in 2022 and $4,451 in 2025.
The addition of Crop Cash Plus in 2023, while Pandemic-EBT funds were still being circulated, resulted in over $15,000 in supplemental food support at the Hardwick market.
Those extra funds, “significantly increased redemption/reimbursement numbers at nearly every farmers market in the state,” said Williams. She pointed out the effect the supplemental funding clearly has on local farm-fresh food ending up on the plates of area residents while it also supports market vendors.
Mary and Alan Gagnon, living in Hardwick said, “As two senior citizens struggling to make ends meet on a very low fixed income due to age and disabilities, we were very relieved to have been found eligible for the SNAP/3 Squares program.”
“It was getting harder and harder to afford the healthier foods which we had relied upon” as prices increased through and after the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.
“Imagine our delight to learn of the CROP Cash Program. By doubling (and sometimes even tripling) our EBT card’s buying power we are able to go to our local farmers market . . . purchase fresh, very high quality, usually organically grown, local produce from our neighbors and friends in enough quantity that we can even put some of it by to see us through the winter.”
‘We are confident in saying it has saved Alan’s life,” said Mary Gagnon. “At all his recent visits his doctors say, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. It’s working.’”
“We’re always trying to expand the program and bring more folks into the market scene,” said Williams.
“After all, farmers markets are for everyone. There’s no sign-up required to participate, just bring your EBT card (if you have one) to the Hardwick Farmers Market Market Info Shed during open hours every Friday between 3 and 6 p.m. from May 22 to October 9 at Atkins Field and we’ll walk you through how it works.”
