The Cherry Street Farmers Market has kicked off a new program. It's called Double Up Food Bucks and is designed to help families on the SNAP benefits to eat healthier. The program allows those people who qualify to spend twenty dollars on fresh produce and get twenty more dollars of free produce. The goal is to get people eating healthy and fresh.
"the fresh fruits and vegetables that you get at the farmers market were most likely picked like within a day or two. So, they are at the height of their nutritional value," says market vender, Michael Appel.
This program that is new to Tulsa and is designed to give low income people a chance to eat better.
"I feel like healthy food should be a right and something that should be accessible for everyone," says Appel.
Being accessible is the number one goal and when families are on a budget the nutrition goes out the window.
"People on a tight budget, in terms of fresh fruits and vegetables, are a little bit more expensive in terms of calories. You are going to be able to buy a lot more per calorie when you buy other things, package products, than fresh fruits and vegetables," says Appel.
The best part of this program is everyone benefits.
"It's great for the farmers because there is always a lot of extra at the end of the market. So, there is tons of produce to be bought and to consume," says Appel.
With the farmers being local the economy is always a winner. Appel says you could get bags of fresh food at the market but the main goal is to get everyone coming.
"We are really wanting to encourage all demographics of Tulsa to come out to the farmers market. We really feel like it's so important for people to be eating fresh fruits and vegetables," says Appel.
The George Kaiser Family Foundation is paying the bill to match the snap dollars. You can go to their website to make a donation to help match the bucks, cherrystreetfarmersmarket.com.
