EBT cards no longer valid at farmer’s markets

t is that time of the season when Wisconsin’s bountiful harvest of fruits and vegetables are ready for harvest. In fact, it is peak season. A visit to the farmer’s market today finds baskets of tomatoes, broccoli, beans and peppers. These are healthy foods, grown locally, the kinds of foods we are told we should eat. Those who receive government assistance to purchase food are encouraged to use those benefits to purchase foods sold at farmer’s markets. Marketing and social media campaigns have been encouraging SNAP recipients to shop at farmer’s markets using their EBT cards. The small stands use an app on a food stamp recipient’s phone to accept the cards as payment. That makes sense, as it encourages those on limited budgets to eat healthy. It comes at a bad time then that the software company which makes this app is discontinuing it at the end of July, in just a couple of weeks. That could force these small farmer’s market stands to buy their own device to process the payments, which given their pricetag, is unlikely. The USDA should address this issue, and figure out a solution to allow vegetable stands to continue to accept EBT cards. Too much has been invested in promoting the program with too much success to allow it to just discontinue. Otherwise, those on food stamps may skip the vegetable stand and buy hot dogs and chips instead.