April 30, 2024
Double Up Food Bucks and KSRE Launch Its Fifth Farmers Market Season
K-State Research and Extension is kicking off its fifth farmers market season with Double Up Food Bucks by providing coordination support at over 27 farmers markets, farm stands, and mobile markets in Kansas in 2024.
“We’re excited to continue to support this program that helps low-income families stretch their food dollars, and increases customer numbers for vendors at farmers markets, mobile markets, and farm stands,” said Erin Bishop, Double Up Food Bucks Program Manager with K-State Research and Extension. “Kansas farmers market are family-friendly places where people connect with the farmers who grow their food, try new foods, and set lifelong habits of eating and loving locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.”
K-State Research and Extension is part of the Double Up Heartland Collaborative, an effort led by the Mid-America Regional Council, and includes partnerships with Cultivate Kansas City, West Central MO Community Action Agency, University of Missouri Extension, and the University of Kansas Medical Center. Double Up Food Bucks is funded by grants totaling 12.5-million-dollars from the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a division of the USDA, in addition to generous gifts from the Kansas Health Foundation, Health Forward Foundation, the Hall Family Foundation, the Marion & Henry Bloch Foundation and Blue KC.
This year, the program is offered at over 160 locations, including over 70 farmers markets, farm stands, and mobile markets, and 90 grocery stores throughout the two-state effort. In Kansas, thirty-six counties offer Double Up Food Bucks at farmers markets, mobile markets, farm stands, and grocery stores. Extension agents in these counties have been key partners by connecting retail sites with the collaborative, increasing outreach and awareness with community partners, and educating customers on the opportunity to match their SNAP dollars, for free, for fresh fruits and vegetables. For more information and to find a complete list of locations, visit https://www.doubleupheartland.org/. If you have questions on Double Up Food Bucks, please reach out to Erin Bishop at erbish@ksu.edu.