A Federal Funding Update from our Executive Director, Ella Daniels

Dear Market Community,

Despite court orders to unfreeze federal funding, we are still not able to access funds to operate two programs: 1) Produce Bucks for SNAP/EBT market matching and 2) Local Food Purchasing Assistance grant funding. These changes do not impact our organizational stability, but we want our market community to understand how this impacts some of our most vulnerable customers, farmers, and other community members as well as the proactive steps MCFM is taking to protect these programs.

Produce Bucks is a farmers market nutrition incentive program that makes locally grown produce more affordable for low-income community members by matching their SNAP/EBT spending dollar-for-dollar at farmers markets. Less than 24 hours after this program was paused, we rallied and raised funds independently from our Board of Directors to cover the match for our SNAP/EBT customers during the month of February. We hope to learn soon if the USDA will resume reimbursement, and we will explore alternative options to protect this food access program in the future if federal funding is not guaranteed. Produce Bucks benefit customers, farmers, and the local economy and they effectively increase our community’s access to farm fresh food, putting meals on the table for those who need it most.

UPDATE: As of Thursday at 4:55pm, we received wonderful news that Produce Bucks have been reinstated. While this is great news, the future of federal funding for nutrition assistance like Produce Bucks remains uncertain. The House Budget Committee budget resolution for FY2025 aims to cut nutrition assistance (SNAP) and other agricultural programs by $230 billion, and the Senate budget resolution for FY2025 aims to cut nutrition assistance and agricultural programs by $1 billion. Stay tuned for further updates.

Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) is a multi-year grant awarded to MCFM & CF from the USDA in order to expand our Greens for Good produce donation program. We purchase and donate excess food from our farmers at the end of each summer market day, and LFPA grant funding would allow us to purchase more pounds of produce while also including more culturally relevant items specifically requested by recipients. Because we cannot guarantee USDA reimbursement, our friends at the Minnesota Farmers Union have offered to introduce a bill before the Minnesota Legislature to help grantees like us fund their local food purchasing in 2026. For summer 2025, we still hope to identify alternative funding sources for our planned program, allowing us to reach and better serve more food insecure neighbors in partnership Augsburg Campus Kitchen and M Health Fairview’s Health Commons.

I’m grateful to be part of an organization that stands on its values and remains committed to building a local food system that works for everyone, especially those who grow our food and steward our land. Let’s continue to transform this moment of uncertainty into a moment for substantive change. Thank you for your continued support.

In partnership,

Ella

1. Contact your legislators
2. Buy directly from farmers (upcoming markets on 2/15, 3/1, 3/15 & 4/5)
3. Make a monthly donation