With the Federal government ending the emergency allotment of extra Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits and the higher cost of food at the grocery store, many more people are facing food insecurity.
Massachusetts is on schedule to replace some of the lost SNAP benefits to residents. However, thus far only three months of funding (for April, May, and June) have been allocated.
We need your help to sustain the fund throughout this season
You can give:
SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP supplements the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food at supermarkets, farmers markets, and convenience stores.
HIP is the Healthy Incentives Program that rewards SNAP recipients with extra benefits when they use SNAP to purchase fruits, vegetables, and food-producing plants at farmers markets, farm stands, CSAs, and mobile markets.
Each SNAP customer can use their SNAP tokens to make eligible purchases from any of the market’s produce farmers. The Winchester Farmers Market also provides, through the Massachusetts Healthy Incentive Program, an instant rebate into SNAP customers’ accounts for purchase of fruits and vegetables.
We also accept Women, Infant and Children (WIC) coupons and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program FMNP) coupons.
Contributors to Anna’s Fund help Winchester and Woburn residents have greater access to fresh and healthy food in a way that provides dignity.
Leo Castro, SNAP table intern and a 2023 graduate of WHS:
The LaViolette family continues to support the fund, & daughter Linda highlights the importance of SNAP & Anna’s Fund:
Our intention was to provide the Market’s SNAP customers with matching funds to provide greater access to fresh quality produce. As we grew the program, we were initially able to maintain the pace of demand, even in the wake of the pandemic. However, beginning in 2022, news of our matching fund had spread, bringing busloads of people from as far away as Andover and Waltham to take advantage of our SNAP match.
While we had made adjustments to the program by reducing the amount of matching funds from $15 to $10 per visit. Speaking with the directors of the adult daycare centers, who have been sending the buses, it has become evident that without making significant changes to Anna’s Fund, there would be no way to financially sustain it.
The committee overseeing Anna’s Fund made the difficult decision to pause distribution of the
fund to allow us to research sustainable solutions. After learning a great deal from other
markets and reviewing our plans with the MA Department of Transitional Assistance, we made changes to Anna’s Fund to ensure sustainability of the program.
The Anna LViolette Fund was created in 2019 to honor the memory of our great friend Anna LaViolette. Although with us for only two short years, the 85-year-old volunteer rarely missed a Saturday at the Market Manager’s tent. She embodied the spirit of what the Market aspires to be: always welcoming, inquisitive, vibrant, and socially conscious. She was a strong believer in our mission of making healthy, fresh food available to everyone.
Our commitment is to serve those facing food insecurity in our communities by providing greater access to healthy, locally grown, fresh produce.
The Anna LaViolette Fund is supported by the LaViolette family.
Winchester Savings Bank sponsors our program that hires interns to administer the SNAP program. Each week, an intern can be found at the manager’s tent at the market. Qualified shoppers can stop by to pick up tokens for shopping. At the same time, they can get matching funds from Anna’s Fund.
In 2022, many in our community bought raffle tickets to support the farmers market’s efforts to raise money for Anna’s Fund. After a drawing on November 19, the raffle winner, Leslie Kennedy, received the beautiful queen-size quilt created and contributed by local master quilter Denise Konicek.
In 2022, contributors gave more than $21,000 through the raffle and other donations, and all of it went directly to SNAP customers. The raffle was invaluable to building our program. We are grateful for your continued generosity.
2022 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
