CalFresh Now Accepted at Auburn Farmers Market

This year, fresh fruits and vegetables will be available for low-income families at the DeWitt Center Placer Grown Farmers’ Market. New to this year’s market is the ability to take CalFresh benefits (formerly called food stamps), making the peaches, lettuces and other produce more accessible.

CalFresh recipients may go to the Wednesday market from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to exchange benefits for dollar certificates, which the produce vendors then accept for currency.

“This is good. More people can eat our fresh food and I can get more customers,” said Alycia Ortega, of Ortega farms in Loomis Wednesday.

The program began fresh this year and will continue through the market’s end in October, and again next year. It is funded by a USDA $240,000 grant that spans Nevada, Sacramento,Yolo and Placer counties. Two other Placer County farmers markets take the CalFresh benefits through the grant, located in Lincoln, with information listed above.

“We hope to expand to additional Placer Grown markets,” said Amelia Anderson, who helps coordinate the grant through the Sacramentobased Health Education Council.

Anderson said they hoped the program would continue beyond the grant, possibly through the market manager or volunteering groups, like churches.

Courtney Cagle and Montserrat Papis helped people exchange CalFresh benefits (formerly known as food stamps) Wednesday at the DeWitt farmers market.

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Originally published by Auburn Journal