SPRINGFIELD — It’s a snap to load up on fresh fruits and vegetables at the Farmers’ Market at Forest Park — thanks to a state program that provides up to $80 a month to eligible families for locally grown produce.
Families enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) automatically qualify for the state-funded Healthy Incentives Project (HIP), which aims to get more fruits and vegetables on the table, according to Belle Rita Novak, who manages the market.
Novak called the HIP project a win-win-win proposition.
“It’s a win for the customers, who are getting produce for free; it’s a win for the farmers who are making a profit; and it’s a win for the community because people are eating better and healthier,” she said.
David Paysnick, owner of Rainbow Harvest Farm in Greenfield, one of four Forest Park vendors participating in the SNAP program, was doing a brisk business last Tuesday, selling spring greens including kale, bok choy, parsley and dill to a diverse customer base with an assist from his mother, Beth, and friend Leah Barr.
Paysnick said 30 percent of his total sales come from SNAP customers during the early part of the season when his farm sells “everything leafy.”
Later in the season when more varieties of produce – such as beets, cucumbers, squash, peppers and tomatoes - become available, the percentage of folks buying produce through the HIP initiative increases, he said.
Paysnick, who grew up in Longmeadow, is a fan of the Farmers’ Market at Forest Park, which is held every Tuesday in a lot near Cyr Arena. “I load up the truck with everything I can fit in it,” he said, adding that he typically arrives at the market between 10 and 11 a.m. to set up.
The market opens at 12:30 and runs until 6 p.m., but Paysnick usually doesn’t head back to Greenfield until 7 o’clock.
Other farmers participating in the HIP program at the Forest Park market are Red Fire Farm of Granby, Riverbend Farm from Franklin County and Urban Artisans, a hydroponic market based on Gasoline Alley in Springfield.
“These farmers are hard workers,” Novak said. “We need to support them.”
Novak said the Farmers Market, whose vendors include sellers of milk, eggs, dairy products, baked goods, meat and honey, is a happy place.
“It’s just fun to see people so happy with their purchases and farmers so happy with their sales,” she said.
Launched in April 2017, HIP provides a 100 percent incentive – a dollar-for-dollar match – for each SNAP dollar spent on targeted fruits and vegetable purchased at farmers markets, farm stands, mobile markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs throughout the commonwealth.
Since its inception “HIP has meant better health outcomes for vulnerable families, and better sustainability for local farms,” according to a press release from the state.
HIP FACTS (since April 2019):
- SNAP families purchased $9 million in fresh, health, local food.
- 55,000 families earned HIP incentives
- 2,000 individuals increased their fruit and vegetable intake by one serving a day.
- That increase in healthy eating can mean annual savings of more than $1.9 million in health costs.
- More than 200 farms sold $9 million more of the fresh fruits and vegetables they grew.
- SNAP sales at farm retailers increased by nearly 600 percent from 2016 to 2017, thanks to HIP.
- That increase in sales helps generate 40-60 new jobs in the farming sector.
- In 2017, there was a 65 percent increase in the number of direct-to-consumer SNAP retailers.
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