Increasing access to locally grown produce, protein and dairy among limited resource Kentuckians is a win for limited resource Kentuckian and Kentucky’s small farmers. In the fall of 2022 and spring of 2023, KYNEP staff members began revising the Farmers’ Market Toolkit, a resource for farmers’ markets so that they can accept nutrition benefits programs such as SNAP, WIC, and Senior Vouchers. The goal of the toolkit is to increase the customer based for Kentucky’s farmers while ensuring that folks who receive federal food benefits can purchase fresh produce. The toolkit was completed in the winter of 2023 and is currently in the final stages of publication.

In the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, the KYNEP team presented information from the Farmers’ Market Toolkit at 4 different statewide conferences geared towards local farming and food sales. The KYNEP team also partnered with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Community Farm Alliance and the Cabinet for Health and Families Services to host two online informational workshops about all the farmers market benefits programs and how to apply. These combined efforts reached over 300 individuals engaged in Kentucky’s local food economy.

The results of these outreach efforts were a 59% increase in the number of farmers’ markets in Kentucky that accepted one or more nutrition benefit as a form of payment between the 2022 to the 2024 farmers’ market seasons. In 2024, there are at least 180 farmers’ markets operating across Kentucky and at least 65 of these markets accept one or more nutrition benefits program and 59 markets are participating in Kentucky Double Dollars, a program that doubles the spending power of purchasers using benefits programs.

When limited resource Kentuckians use their benefits dollars to purchase locally grown foods, they increase consumption of fresh foods while stimulating the local economy, supporting Kentucky’s small farmers.