In 2019, KY NEP published a Farmers’ Market Toolkit intended to be used by Extension Agents and farmers’ market managers to help markets accept nutrition benefits programs such as SNAP, WIC, and Senior Vouchers. Shortly after the launch of the toolkit, the COVD-19 pandemic drastically changed the landscape of farmers’ markets. In the fall of 2022 and spring of 2023, KYNEP staff members began revising the Farmers’ Market Toolkit given all the changes that had occurred.

The KYNEP Food Systems team began by updating the existing farmers’ market toolkit information. Basic updates included new URL’s, state statistics, maps and contact information for the various program administrators. The next step was a review of content by partner agencies. The KYNEP team contacted partners from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture; Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services; Community Farm Alliance and Kentucky Department of Community Based Services, to help update specific program content.

With all of the updates in place, the KYNEP then hosted a Farmers’ Market Toolkit listening session that included county agents, farmers’ market managers and representatives from Kentucky Department of Agriculture and Community Farm Alliance. This session helped the KYNEP team determine the best ways to present all the Farmers’ Market Toolkit materials. The feedback from this session led to several next steps:

1. The hosting of a Spring/Summer online informational session on Farmers’ Market Benefits Programs.
2. Understanding of the various formats and locations that the NEP Farmers’ Market Toolkit needs to exist.
3. The hosting of a fall/winter online information session to support farmers’ markets to enroll in the various benefits programs for the coming market year.

To date, the Spring/Summer Farmers’ Market Benefits Information session occurred on Thursday, June 15, 2023 and had 81 people attend. Participants will receive the powerpoint from this presentation plus a short section from the forthcoming Farmers’ Market Toolkit, “Accepting Farmers’ Market Nutrition Benefits”. Over the summer, KYNEP staff will work on adapting the toolkit information to be accessible to the end audience using the feedback from the spring listening session. IN the fall/winter of 2023, we plan to launch the updated Farmers’ Market Toolkit in conjunction with a re-watch of the spring Farmers’ Market Nutrition Benefits session and provide support to both agents and markets interested in enrolling in farmers’ market benefits programs.