Food Stamp-CSA opens access to the freshest food

Market farmers say trial enterprise worked well within their enterprise mix; subscribers delighted with variety, freshness, flavor—and recipes.

By Zachary D. Lyons

Crystine and her son Rowan serving customers at a farmers’ market in Anacortes, Washington.

Food Stamps. Congress pumps billions of dollars into them every year. USDA administers those funds, which are distributed to income-eligible, nutritionally at-risk Americans. Unfortunately, Food Stamps are rarely used to buy fresh, nutrient-dense food directly from farmers.

Many farmers accepted Food Stamps when they were paper. When Food Stamps switched to a debit-card system in the late-1990s, most farmers’ markets and many farm stands were pushed out of accepting them, CSA acceptance of Food Stamps is uncommon, either because the farmers or organizers do not know they can accept them, or because they believe it would be a bureaucratic nightmare to do it. But one little farm in the northwest corner of Washington State is not only accepting Food Stamps for its CSA, it only accepts Food Stamps, and it dreams that farms all over the country can learn from its experience and do it themselves.

Chrystine Goldberg and Brian Campbell own Uprising Organics, a small, diversified farm with a CSA as one component. The couple lives in the city of Bellingham, and they commute to the rural Whatcom County town of Acme, where they farm on 3 acres, rotating one half of it with the other from production to fallow cover crops. Uprising Organics grows produce to take to the farmers market in Anacortes, Washington, for their CSA, some restaurants and Bellingham’s food co-op, and they have half an acre in seed production.

“About 20-25 percent of our sales are from seeds,” said Campbell. Uprising Organics’ seed business, which was launched in 2007, also contracts with other farms to produce seeds for them. The rest of their sales come from produce–50 percent of which are through the farmers market, 10 percent from restaurants, 30 percent from the food co-op, and the other 10 percent from the CSA.

“As the seed business grows, we will shift produce sales to serve more low-income people,” said Campbell. “That’s what the CSA model grew out of.”

Uprising Organics operated an eight-share, Food Stamp-only CSA in its inaugural year in 2007, thanks to its novel approach to traditional CSA operation. One of the basic precepts of CSAs is that subscribers pay for their shares upfront, giving the farmer the operating capital to grow the crops that will feed the subscriber throughout that coming season. But federal law prohibits recipients from paying in advance with Food Stamps for goods they will receive at a later point in time. Goldberg and Campbell came up with a community-based solution.

Starting with seed money

“We raised seed money to start our CSA,” said Campbell. The seed money covered early season expenses that would normally be covered by upfront subscription fees. The CSA’s Food Stamp subscribers then pay each week for their share box, and as they do, those funds replenish the seed money for the next year. “Our recruiting flier explained what a CSA is and asked for a commitment through the entire season. And everyone did,” said Campbell.

The farm raised enough funds in 2007 to underwrite eight shares. “We pitched the idea around the farmers market, our food co-op, and to family and friends,” said Campbell. “We made it clear that it was a one-time gift that would keep rolling over from year-to-year–a gift that keeps on giving.”

Farmer couple Brian Campbell, Crystine Goldberg and their child Rowan, with bean teepee on their diversified market farm near Bellingham, in coastal northwestern Washington state.

Uprising Organics operates a seasonal, June-through-October CSA program with three subscription levels: a single-person share worth $200 per season for $10 per week; a couples- or small-family share worth $300 per season for $15 per week; and a full-family share worth $400 per season for $20 per week. This is the going rate for CSA shares in Whatcom County, said Campbell.

Of course, in order for the CSA to accept Food Stamps as payment, USDA and the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) must first approve the farm to do so. Then the farm must be set up to accept those Food Stamps in their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) form–that debit-type card system USDA now uses instead of paper Food Stamps. Uprising Organics applied as a “farm stand” open only three hours per week, when subscribers came each week to pick up their share.

EBT-machine details can work

JP Morgan, the bank with which USDA has contracted to handle the EBT processing and funds transference, will provide an EBT card-swiping machine free of charge to any grocery retailer approved by USDA to accept Food Stamps, as long as the retailer only uses the machine for EBT–no debit or credit cards–and as long as the retailer processes at least $100 worth of EBT transactions each month.

Racking up $100 of EBT transitions each month is no problem for a farm with even as few as eight CSA subscribers paying with Food Stamps during the CSA season. What could be a problem is the reality that the CSA is not in operation from November through May, leaving seven months during which the machine registers no EBT transactions whatsoever.

Seasonal application is the key to be able to keep an EBT machine for free year-round. “When we applied, we applied as a seasonal farm stand,” said Goldberg. “JP Morgan then asked us what months we planned to be operating. We told them June through October, and the account simply stays dormant the rest of the time, with no fees for the machine.” Goldberg said the farm can always let JP Morgan know if it plans to extend its season, so the bank can activate the account earlier or keep it active later.

Also, it’s possible to accept Food Stamps without any EBT machine at all. Many farmers markets and farms use a voucher and phone system to process EBT. The Food Stamp customer fills out a form with their EBT account number and how much they wish to be charged to that account, and the farm or market calls into the bank with the account numbers of the customer and the farm or market. The bank then authorizes the transaction (if it documents sufficient funds) and the farm or market turns in the form to the bank later.

This system works best (in the absence of landline) if a cell phone is used to call the bank at the time of the transaction, eliminating any risk of being stuck with a depleted Food Stamp account when calling the bank later. Of course, in a CSA structure, because of the weekly nature of the relationship between Food Stamp customer and farm, such fraud or oversight is rare. Additionally, USDA does allow for Food Stamp CSA subscribers to pay up to two weeks in advance, so CSAs are able to bill Food Stamp customers earlier in the month, when funds are still sufficient in their accounts.

Subscribers happy

Uprising Organics’ Food Stamp-only CSA subscribers were very happy with its first year. “I am a newly single mom, looking for employment, financially strapped and on Food Stamps,” said Oso Ghoffrani, a Bellingham mother of two children, ages 2 and 4 years. “I really appreciate being able to get good local organic produce from good people. The variety is very interesting. We got to try different things. It is convenient. I picked up my share at their house, and it came with a letter explaining everything in the box. It brought the community together–other families, the farmers, etc.”

The farmscape at Uprising Organics, showing the growing field with vegetables and flowers for market and for their commercial seed enterprise.

Ghoffrani gets a $15 per week share, and she says there is plenty of food. “Each box is a solid week’s worth of produce. We don’t need anything else except fruit, which we can use WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks for at the farmers’ market. In winter, I shop at the grocery store,” said Ghoffrani. “Even though the co-op has local, organic produce, it is not as fresh as the CSA’s, which was harvested that day.”

Robin Kinkade, of Lummi Island, Washington, feeds herself, her husband and her 4-year and 18-month old children on her $20 per week share. “Anything leftover can be frozen and used in winter. I’m into the ‘beyond organics’ concept – local, seasonal. I get a really good idea of what grows where I live from the CSA. It makes me more of a whole and healthy person. I love that I can use Food Stamps for it.”

Because her CSA share only costs about one-sixth of her monthly Food Stamp allotment during the summer months—while providing half of her family’s food—Kinkade was able to use her surplus Food Stamps to stock up on staple pantry items for use in winter. “I was also able to buy grass-fed beef with surplus Food Stamps and freeze it for winter,” she said. “The CSA helped make this luxury available to me by lowering my food costs in the summer months.”

Creative recipes help

Heather Cochran, a single mom from Bellingham with a one-year-old daughter, learned about Uprising Organics through the County’s Opportunity Council. “There was stuff in the box I’d never heard of or that would be hard to find,” Cochran said. “The farmers were very creative with what they grew. They would explain the unusual stuff, and they would occasionally include recipes. Part of why I don’t like to go to the store is that it is not as appetizing as what comes in my CSA box.”

Goldberg expects the retention rate of their CSA subscribers to be high—Ghoffrani, Kinkade and Cochran all plan to renew—and the farm has already heard from four new people wanting to subscribe. They see gradual expansion as no problem. They were already structured as a diversified market farm to harvest their crops for weekly income from the farmers’ market, so transitioning to accept weekly Food Stamp payments for the same produce essentially makes no difference to their annual budget.

“It’s just not that difficult to set up a Food Stamp CSA, and people really appreciated it,” said Goldberg. “One hundred percent Food Stamp payments might be more difficult with a 100-share CSA, but it worked well for us.” 

Zachary D. Lyons is a freelance food and agriculture writer in Seattle. He served seven years as executive director of the Washington State Farmers Market Association, he currently serves as vice president of the Seattle Chapter of Chefs Collaborative, and he is a certified barbecue judge.

March 17, 2008