9.20.2022 Farm Fresh Food 4 All

okay welcome to St Anne's Hospital and thank you for being here today to celebrate the collaboration that makes the farmers market program in Fall River possible the Farmers Market has held every Tuesday at St Anne's for early summer through the growing season in the fall this has been very successful in improving access to healthy food in many areas of for people who struggle financially

for many families and individuals buying nutritious food is often not possible it is so important to have a program like healthy incentives program and access to the hip and snap eligible markets like this one in 2021 85 percent of total sales at our Farmers Market were made using hip SNAP benefits and 10 were made using farmer nutrition coupons for elderly and WIC program participants we've seen the same

Trends in 2022 this tells us that our farmers market and others like it around Fall River are truly hitting the mark for bringing affordable healthy food to those most in need thank you for the city of Fall River Mass in motion Lane Gardens Oakdale farms in Southeastern Massachusetts agricultural Partnerships for making these important Farmers Market a reality thank you thank you Mr President is

so thank you all today for coming um the farmers markets in Fall River are a joint effort between mass and motion Fall River and the Southeastern Massachusetts agricultural partnership the goal was to integrate local food directly into the neighborhoods of Fall River and allow underserved communities access to fresh healthy local food through the the snap program the healthy incentives program and the Farmers

Market nutrition program this is a benefit to the local neighborhoods they have easy walking access to local food as well as to the farmers who are always eager to be able to meet communities in need but also need to make a real price for their product so the Massachusetts has funded the healthy incentives program to help meet both of those goals these are small pop-up markets we have

one or two farmers at each of the markets and some service providers to provide information we're not yet at the point to be able to host big markets across the city but that is ultimately where we would like to see to have a more vibrant local community market because one of the things that brings people to buy local food is the community aspect and as well as being able to support their local farmers

having trouble hearing feel free to come on this side as well but I just wanted to start out by thanking the the residents who come and Shop here the visitors that come to Fall River to buy their healthy food at the farmers market and also our special speakers thank you for being willing to share your your words of wisdom with us and and help us understand food and nutrition security

um September is hunger awareness month and we all are aware every single one of us understand of that costs have gone up everywhere costs have gone up for food but not only for food also for gas and rent and everything in the the supply chain that's having trouble and then it makes it harder to afford the food which everyone needs to live so uh just hope that everyone understands and and this

is what we're here for today to talk about Hunger awareness food and nutrition security and they have the incentives program is such it's a win-win-win-win program in my book because it helps the farmer who gets income to support themselves and their families it helps the community so the farmer's income goes right back into our local community it helps the environment because you're not

um you're not transporting carrots from California you're growing carrots in Dayton and Rehoboth and nearby towns and then of course it helps the consumers who if they're using the healthy incentives program and they have SNAP benefits already then they are they are able to not pay any money out of pocket for their fruits and vegetables they can use their hip benefits to um to purchase

them and that is a great win for the consumers as well and then as Karen said we we strategically placed our Market small in local areas so that people could access them with the public transit so they could walk from their homes nearby and they could easily access what we have to offer and we thank you so much for coming we are going to introduce Becca Miller from the mass food system collaborative a state

agency that deals with food security thank you hi all can you hear me okay all right well tell me if I'm like not loud enough so I'm Becca Miller I work at the mass food system collaborative we're a small non-profit organization that works to build a more resilient sustainable and Equitable local food system here in Massachusetts one of the projects I manage that I'm lucky enough to manage is a campaign for healthy

incentives program funding where we Lobby the state every year to fund the hit program so that it can run year round add new farmers and serve more snap clients in Massachusetts for a little bit of context hip was based on a pilot in 2013 in Hampden County Massachusetts that basically showed that you know people of all income levels do want to eat and have access to fresh fruits and vegetables right that's not

like a new thing that's something that just was lack due to lack of funding and so that pilot that lasted a year really showed that folks would purchase up to another servings worth of fruits and vegetables with these kind of nutrition incentive programs so that was huge that as we love to talk about in Massachusetts being a leader launched a national little program that is was called the food and nutrition incentive

program that's now the gosh Schumacher nutrition incentive program at the USDA which funds similar programs Nationwide that's really huge and that led to the start of the healthy incentives program in 2017. in 2017 we again saw a really awesome uptake of hip so much so that the initial Federal allocation of three million dollars which was supposed to last three years ran through in 10

months unfortunately leading to a program suspension that's why the campaign for healthy incentives program funding was started we said you know that's really showing that the program is successful but we want this to continue for the long term so with the help of Representatives like representative Fiola and representative Sylvia we were able to secure funding each year and unfortunately each year the program

would face suspensions due to you know folks being really enthusiastic about the program and that enthusiasm not entirely matching up with funding until 2021 the first year that the program ran all calendar year without interruption which was really huge um hip is now five years old it continues to grow every single year so just some quick statistics about its last year of growth

um in this last calendar year we saw a close to 40 percent growth in snap clients using the program that's like real people coming to the farmer's market coming to farm stands going to Mobile markets receiving CSA shares using this program we also saw a historic investment of 12 million dollars plus a 12 million dollar carryover from the legislature thank you again for that we really appreciate it

this is a really historic investment into the program's next year of operation and we are also lucky enough to work with the Department of Transitional Assistance to add a hundred new farmer vendors to this program which increases access across the state specifically to Farms that will serve black snap clients and snap clients with disabilities in several communities across the Commonwealth that lacked

access previously so that's also really huge and so each of these Investments and studied continued growth and consumer uptake demonstrate that this program is meeting its mission of both serving folks that are low income and making sure that our local farming stays sustainable and we also just wanted to thank the work of folks like Karen Sarah Shannon James Liz Christine I'm probably

going to forget a few please forgive me for being awesome advocates for this program and Laura Smith and all of her customers who are actually like using hip right now and of course the legislators who took this program seriously inside the building and continued its advocacy for continued funding so thank you all for sharing your stories and continuing the work and for making this program a reality for the last five

years and hopefully the next five years more so we really look forward to continuing to work together I'm happy to give everyone my information but I'm just really glad to be here today to see this program in person and to make sure that you know it continues to grow and meet its Mission so thanks everyone next on the itinerary we have the legislators and elected officials so mayor Coogan will kick us off with

saying a few words and then he can pass it on to the state representatives thank you I just want to say how special it is to partner with Saint Anne's Hospital health first um I know I'm forgetting somebody but uh these are the people and of course um the fall of a Housing Authority I was just talking to Kevin this program in partnership with cmap WIC and the local farmers are bringing fresh produce to

people that might not have access to it right here in Fall River and multiple locations and it improves food access and it also helps the environment by not having the truck and stuff all across the country so I can't thank them enough for coming down here it's very important you can see we're very very active and vibrant here today so if you want to swing by and pick up some fresh produce

that would be great but at the same time know the people that do the work that support these kind of programs and keep it going thank you thanks mayor I really came to thank you all today for uh putting this program to work here in Fall River um Mike from the hospital Tracy thank you for Lending your footprint here for the community to access to Karen to Sarah to mass in motion I remember five

years ago four years ago going to a meeting at the State House about hip benefits and I and how important it was for us to fund more money and I came back here and I realized at the time things really hadn't kicked off yet in Fall River so I was like this is incredible if I am a family or an individual receiving SNAP benefits and I live at home and I'm alone

I can use my SNAP benefits and get forty dollars a month in free local fresh fruits and vegetables and it doesn't come off my SNAP benefits wow so I said at first why am I going to support and fund a program that really isn't happening down here in my own needy at the community well boy did the people rally in Fall River these groups and organizations work so hard to make sure this community benefited and boy

have we so so well you're all part of the solution but I am so proud to support this and I know rep Sylvia is going to speak but I wanted to acknowledge who couldn't be here today my good colleague Paul Schmidt who is very active on the food system food Security Group and of course our good senator rodericks who holds the money strings over on the Senate side so we

are proud to support this program and we ask every individual out there who has SNAP benefits to take advantage of this program thank you mayor thank you all great to be with you thank you I'm only going to speak for about 35 or 40 minutes so so you know probably the most important part of this today is not only all of you being here but the collaboration Florida housing authority Kevin spadella test current

from uh our Board of Health and massive motion as Carol mentioned and Mike St Anne's Hospital uh you know this partnership and if you can see and I know the cameras are rolling and floor of a community media thank you because Folks at home are seeing this in Fall River some of them for the first time some may not even know we're here but this has been so important to our

community as a member of the food collaborative it's it's important for me because I can see this as it was mentioned earlier win-win-win-win it's win it's total at home it's free food come down here you know it not only helps our farmers it helps you healthy food and your families and that's what we're all about that's what we want to do thank you all very much so I don't see rep uh Schmidt he was

trying his best to get back from Boston but I don't see that he's made it if he pops in before we're done he may take a few moments to speak and as was mentioned uh Senator rodericks couldn't make it as well but we thank them both also so much for their support and yes thank you so much um now we would like to introduce Laura Smith who is the farmer for Lane Gardens

and she also works with Oakdale farms and she's going to speak a little bit about her experience and how hip helps her hey uh thank you so I I'd love to share my experience as a farmer just being able to help the community it is so I just feel honored that I'm able to give food Fresh Foods and vegetables and fruits to the community it's it's amazing the stories that I hear I hear

about people getting more healthy because they are eating fresh vegetables and I'd like to share with you about what it's done for me as a farmer so I am a fifth generation farmer and I it's really important to me to be able to continue with uh keeping my family in the farm of Happily my daughter is also going to do it so in order to make my farm sustainable this hip program is

going to do that it because hip is now year round I have my free home delivery business that I can keep going and I have lots of greenhouses that I love to fill up so I can continue to grow throughout the winter as I have a better income I am then able to improve my farm so I'm helping other businesses by purchasing more supplies and also improving the business the buildings on my farm

and I really appreciate everybody coming out here and supporting this thank you thank you Laura um we have two residents of Fall River who have used hip uh incentives program and they healthy incentives program hip and they would like to speak about their experiences so this is Diane first she will speak first hi I am uh I'm a frequent flyer with the farmers markets I've been doing it for many many years

so when hip started I was really excited because it gave me extra buying powder power to you know supplement my income my food stamps and helped pay the bills because if I didn't have to pay that forty dollars for groceries this month I had extra money for other things that came up and you know there's always an emergency that pops up so you know the the food is fresh it's flavorful it

lasts so much longer than at the grocery store it's amazing I had Hot House Tomatoes this winter that were absolutely the best and let me tell you the Winter Market you get a good variety of food and they deliver it right to your door if you put in your order by what is it Saturday or Sunday your food comes to you on Wednesday and they just process your food stamps you

don't even have to leave which was such a blessing through covid because I'm dealing with cancer and I didn't want to be in the supermarkets through covid so I was like yes and the farmer's market at Cardinal Medeiros is just about a mile from my house so it's close it's convenient and I couldn't ask for a better program and I want to thank the people the powers that be that provide for us low-income people thank you

huh just say your name yeah my name is Bernie um I'm on snap and it's terrible to say that I didn't know that much about hip until my friend Masha when we were doing food together she kind of explained it to me I started way back when with the full plate project to try to help give out the food and all I said to everybody was when I was growing up I wish that I

had everything that's out there today for everybody I'm trying to get involved in other organizations I'm with Christine and Liz I'm trying to help all that I can and try to get the word out and all I have to say is thank you and food stamps thank you Diane and Bernie we really appreciate hearing the the lived experience that uh you bring to this conversation um I would like to introduce Liz Wiley

and Christine Smith from the Marion Institute in South Coast food policy Council just to say a little bit about the regional work that they're doing for food security I thank you all thank you all for coming out today um I'm gonna invite my my teammate Christine up here so I work at the Marion Institute I'm the executive director and one of our programs at the Marion Institute is the South Coast food

policy Council which Christine is the program manager for so we work regionally with all of these fine people that you've been hearing from today we work to really bring all the stakeholders together so that we can start to break down Regional silos and sector silos to start to look at how do we address food insecurity and and often the term of nutritional insecurity so we do this through our work at the at the

Marion Institute and through our our partnership with everybody with the food policy Council and so I'd also like to point out that we're having a food Summit tomorrow night so if you haven't registered for the food Summit it is tomorrow night will be virtual it's from 6 30 to 8 P.M yes and it will be online fine and it's the theme of it is focused on food and the intersection of food and basic needs

housing health care and transportation I think this is really important to get a lot of people participating in this year's food Summit because as you know you can't have a conversation about food insecurity without talking about Transportation housing and health care so I want to give a shout out to Tracy and the team here at St Anne's for supporting this and supporting access and everybody else that's just working

so hard I'm grateful to be part of this this this initiative thank you all right Karen's gonna step up and say a little recap about the hip program and then I will close us out and we're we're even saving some time today so plenty of time to go buy some vegetables and fruit at the market so um I wanted to make sure that everybody knows that the healthy incentive program benefits can be used

at three markets in Fall River Tuesdays here at St Anne's Wednesdays from two to five at Health First Family Center on Quarry Street and Fridays at Cardinal Medeiros Towers the benefits for the healthy incentive program are automatically something you can use there's no extra paperwork it's a benefit that any snap client has so you can bring your card to the market they will scan your card the money will come

off the card and then it'll immediately be put back on so it isn't any extra work except for getting to the market so we hope that you'll all be able to get out down down to a market and be able to use these benefits um thank you all and you'll get the close-up do you wanna yeah that's my job all right I have the lot I think I have the loudest voice so you know

um so I did want to say that um the the outside in-person markets here are open until October 28th is our last day that's a Friday at Cardinal Medeiros um but after that as Laura mentioned she does home delivery and she does not charge a delivery fee for that so that's an extra special benefit there's a minimal minimum order of 30 but if you're using Hep then you have at least

forty dollars every month so that's a great great way to use your hit money get it delivered right to your door the same fruits and vegetables that you're enjoying in at the in-person market so um and then thank you Tracy and I I did have it written down but I always appreciate a a little verbal reminder just to um so we have some information tables here from uh citizens for Citizens they

um Christine Boardman is going to talk in a few minutes at um we won't wait till 12 o'clock as soon as we'll give ourselves 10 minutes to socialize after we're done speaking and then if anyone here would like to hear more about snap and how to apply how to use it any of how to claim medical expenses and get more um incentives through that and benefits through that then Christine will help

explain that question and answer time and then I'm going to talk after she's through I'm going to talk a little bit about hip and how it works which we've explained here but can't can't hurt maybe you're saving that question you can ask me then so um thank you again one more time to Saint Anne's for hosting uh this event today and for the market on Tuesdays from 11 till 2 and the Wednesday Market

at Health First and the Friday Market at uh Cardinal Madera so thank you to uh Far Over housing authority and to Health First and work that helps sponsor their markets as well so um again thank you for coming and I hope that you come out and enjoy the market soon