Author: Timothy Estes
Planning Unit: Hart County CES
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Plan of Work: Increasing Agriculture Awareness and Profitability
Outcome: Initial Outcome
The Hart County Farmers Market is a small but growing entity. Every year the market seems to get a little bigger and better and support grows due to many factors. One of those factors being the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP). This year Hart County Extension Office administered the SFMNP for the market. Due to a big push in social media advertising as well as word of mouth, we signed up 222 Senior Citizens who met the income requirements for the program. The county was issued $10,647 through the SFMNP cards for those individuals to use. The card system was a new system this year, creating some issues along the way. However, the farmers that were selling at the market were very willing to learn and support the system. The Hart County Ag Agent trained the farmers on the system as well as Produce Best Practices. Due to all of those efforts, our redemption rate was 89% for the SFMNP cards. That alone equates to $9524.76 of direct farm impact. We are looking forward to a new year and a new program that will aid in getting senior citizens healthy farm products to consume as well as more income for the farmers growing those products.
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