Double your dollars: Cape Farmers’ Market offers buying bonus
Last weekend, the Cape Coral Farmers’ Market initiated a new program that enables low-income families to receive more bang for their buck while grocery shopping.
The Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral, which organizes the market, implemented Fresh Access Bucks through a grant received by the Florida Organic Growers. Claudia St. Onge, business manager for the chamber, explained that the program doubles the purchasing power of SNAP and EBT users.
“It will double their dollars – up to $20 – in tokens per day at our market,” she said.
If a customer spends $10 of their benefits at the market, they receive an extra $10 in tokens.
St. Onge noted that customers cannot receive cash back for unused tokens, but they can use the tokens next time. When buying items with tokens, they do not receive cash back as change from the vendors.
“It is not a cash-back program,” she said.
On Saturday, two customers took part in the new program.
“They’re thrilled, and I’m so excited I’m able to do this,” St. Onge said.
The chamber applied to take part in Fresh Access Bucks more than a year ago.
“We found out over the summer that we were going to be one of the markets they were going to accept,” she said, noting that officials came out to review the market in meeting the criteria.
“We’re the only (Lee County) market, currently, that’s in this program,” St. Onge added.
The tokens, which vary in color, can be used toward Florida-grown fruits and vegetables and SNAP eligible items. The participating vendors will display token-matching colored circles at their tents.
“It will tell them what tokens they can use at that vendor,” she said.
A handful of the more than 20 produce vendors are growers and accept the tokens.
St. Onge noted that the rest of the produce vendors at the market are “resellers.” If they want to participate, they first must separate and label their Florida-grown items for the token-holders.
“I think that, in general, many of us are blessed with a lot of bounty in our life and many people are not,” she said. “This affords options for them to live healthy.”
As part of the program, the market will conduct cooking demonstrations starting in January.
“Sometimes people have these unknown vegetables in front of them and they don’t know what to do with them,” St. Onge said. “We want everybody to buy into this idea of healthy eating.”
For several years now, the Cape Coral Farmers’ Market has continued to offer its Market Bucks. Visitors who forgot to bring cash can simply swipe their debit or credit card and receive Market Buck tokens. The tokens, which look different from the other program, can be used as cash at vendors.
“There’s no processing fee to the customer from us, so there’s no additional dollars added on,” she said. “We implemented the program because we want to make it as easy for our customers as possible.”
From October until May, the Cape Coral Farmers’ Market runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays at Club Square, along Southeast 10th Place between Southeast 47th Terrace and Southeast 46th Lane.
The chamber also organizes the Cape Harbour Farmers’ Market, which takes place from May to September at Cape Harbour on Saturdays. Year-round, residents and visitors can swing by the Surfside Sunset Market on any Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Shops at Surfside, in the southwest Cape.
For more information on Fresh Access Bucks, visit: www.foginfo.org/.
For more information on the markets, visit: capecoralfarmersmarket.com or visit one of the Facebook pages by searching for “Cape Coral Farmers’ Market” or “Surfside Sunset Market.”
People can also contact the Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral at 239-549-6900.