COLD SPRING, N.Y. — The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming is proud to announce the launch of the “CSA is a SNAP” program, an initiative of the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition that Glynwood facilitates.
“The farms that make up the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition are passionate about feeding everyone in their community, and we are thrilled to launch a program that will make healthy, nutritious vegetables more available to people facing food insecurity,” said Megan Larmer, Director of the Regional Food Program at Glynwood and facilitator of the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition.
“CSA is a SNAP” is designed to make Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) more accessible to people purchasing food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). The CSA model supports small farms because members of the farm subscribe to their share of the harvest with an upfront payment before the growing season for food they will receive throughout the year. While this is important for farmers, SNAP dollars are distributed on a monthly basis and that makes it difficult to use them to make this upfront payment. “CSA is a SNAP” is establishing a rotating loan fund that is able to purchase shares from farms that are members of the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition at the start of the season, allowing farmers to then sell those shares on installment payments and at a 30% discount to SNAP users.
Five farms are participating in this pilot year of “CSA is a SNAP.” They are:
- Glynwood’s Farm – Distributing $20 vegetable boxes on a first-come first-served basis at HRHCare Jeannette J. Phillips Health Center in Peekskill every Thursday from 11am to 2pm now through November
- The Poughkeepsie Farm Project – Signing up SNAP users for discounted, full-season membership in their CSA
- Solid Ground Farm – Distributing vegetable boxes at the Kingston Farmers Market every Saturday, 9am to 2pm now through November
- Second Wind Farm – Signing up SNAP users for discounted, full-season membership in their CSA
- Rock Steady Farm – Distributing $20 vegetable boxes on a first-come first-served basis at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in Manhattan every Wednesday from Noon to 5pm now through November
Through this program, the equivalent of 93 full-season shares will be distributed to SNAP users, with potential to feed over 700 individuals.
More information is available at www.hudsonvalleycsa.org/csa-is-a-snap/
This pilot year of “CSA is a SNAP” is supported by Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Grant Program grant no. 209-70030-30397/project accession no. 1020889 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Glynwood is an agricultural nonprofit organization based in Cold Spring, New York, working to ensure the Hudson Valley is a region defined by food, where farming thrives. Glynwood accomplishes this by training farmers, empowering changemakers and creating coalitions that transform our regional food system. Please visit www.glynwood.org for more information.
The Hudson Valley CSA Coalition is a network of over 100 farms in the Hudson Valley operating in the Community Supported Agriculture model. The mission of the Coalition is to support, expand, and diversify participation in CSA in the region. This is accomplished through collective marketing, the maintenance of an online directory of CSA farms, creation of educational materials, and stakeholder lead initiatives. For more information, visit www.hudsonvalleycsa.org
HRHCare
Founded over 40 years ago as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), Hudson River Health Care (HRHCare) is one of the nation’s largest community health providers. The HRHCare network of 43 health centers throughout the Hudson Valley, New York City, and Long Island provides affordable, accessible care to over 225,000 patients annually. The network’s exceptional primary care practitioners, specialists, and support staff have made HRHCare a destination for convenient, high-quality care for all. In 2018, Brightpoint Health, an FQHC network with sites in all five boroughs of New York City, joined HRHCare. www.hrhcare.org
–Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming
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