Our Market Token Program for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP, or “food stamp”) makes using SNAP benefits at the Market easy for both customers and vendors.
It’s now grown to be the largest and most effective program of its kind in the nation. And in 2018 alone, our Market Token Program transacted over $1 million in SNAP sales and FreshConnect incentive coupons.
That said, it’s important we keep the momentum going. About 11% of households that receive SNAP benefits in Monroe County participate in the Market SNAP Token program.
In 2019, we’ll be ramping up our efforts to reach more SNAP recipients region wide.
We also strive to make the program easier to access and use in a community whose diversity is growing in leaps and bounds. As Greater Rochester further diversifies across race and ethnicity, country of origin, and native language, the Market Token Program is making its promotional and instructional materials not only easier to discover, but easier to understand. We’ve done our best in the past to make the Market Token Program materials available in other languages, but there are literally over three dozen languages that can be heard at the Market each week. So we have designed a new program flyer and poster that leads with pictures, and fewer, simpler words to explain the program and how to use it.
If you’re interested in volunteering at the token center, community events or have interest in helping us spread the word—shoot us an email and we’ll get back you in short order.
