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After the Syracuse Downtown Farmers Market opted into the Double Up Food Bucks NYS program earlier this summer, Farmer Brown’s Market Garden owner Kyle Brown said he’s seen a recent influx of Syracuse residents buying from his stand.

DUFB allows people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to maximize its benefits. Participating businesses match the price of shoppers’ produce purchases up to $20 a day. Because the city of Syracuse is home to several food deserts, Brown said he hopes the program will make fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible in his community.

“It’s a really important program. It allows people access to healthy local food that otherwise might not be able to get that,” Brown said.

The DUFB program also supports local farmers, Farmers Market Liaison Chuck McFadden said. The Syracuse farmers market joined the program in June.

The program is offered at over 230 locations across New York state. Customers can swipe their Electronic Benefits Transfer card at the farmers market’s Market Manager booth to receive DUFB tokens worth $2 each, McFadden said.

Once shoppers receive their DUFB tokens, they can use them at any participating booth at the farmers market. Tokens are only accepted for fruits, produce and seedlings. They are transferable at participating locations throughout New York state.

The DUFB program is available throughout Syracuse at Brady Farm Stand and two Syracuse Cooperative Market locations, according to its location finder. According to the Syracuse Onondaga Food Systems Alliance, around 45,000 people living in the greater Onondaga County area suffer from food insecurity — the state of having limited access to nutritious food.

“We all live with inflation, and inflation is hurting everybody. I don’t care where you stand politically or where you stand in life … inflation affects you somehow,” McFadden said. “And inflation is just killing people, mostly at the grocery store. This helps with your produce.”

Aidan To | Contributing Photographer

The Double Up Food Bucks program began 10 years ago in western New York with only seven farmers markets. Today, the program expands across the United States with over 230 participating sites in New York alone.

Field & Fork Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering a sustainable food system, began the Food Bucks programs 10 years ago, according to its website. The initiative began with a group of seven farmers markets in western New York, but has since spread across the country to include 25 states.

The program benefits Syracuse farmers by encouraging more customers to shop locally, Bernard said. After farmers receive the tokens from shoppers, she said, they turn them in to be redeemed for a matching check the next week. In 2022, $422,000 went directly to New York farmers through the program, according to Field & Fork’s 2022 Impact Report.

“There’s people who end up shopping at the farmers markets that maybe normally wouldn’t, and are able to get the local produce they normally wouldn’t get. So it definitely helps and impacts the local farmers,” Brown said.

Liza Bernard, economic development coordinator at the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, said a program like this is especially important in Syracuse as a significant population of the city receives SNAP benefits.

In 2023, 28.8% of households in the city of Syracuse received SNAP benefits, the 11th highest percentage in the U.S., syracuse.com reported. 2022 data from the United States Census Bureau indicated that 29.6% of Syracuse residents are living under the poverty line, higher than the 12.5% national average.

“(The program) probably wants to expand and reach more people,” McFadden said. “We’re fairly close to the inner city, the near Westside and the Southside where they need those dollars most.”

The DUFB program was previously available at Brady Market, which temporarily closed in August due to lack of customers and financial struggles, according to localsyr.com.

Brady Market was located on Gifford Street on the Westside of Syracuse, an area categorized as a food desert. The market hopes to reopen in 2025.

In April, state lawmakers maintained investments in the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program, which supports DUFB, according to Feeding New York State. The program received $2 million in the state’s 2025 fiscal year budget.

McFadden said he hopes more people throughout Syracuse continue to make use of the program and its offerings.

“If you come here with only $10 and you need to buy produce, we’re gonna double it to help you even more,” McFadden said.

Published on September 19, 2024 at 1:44 am

Contact Delia: dsrangel@syr.edu