ebt cards at davis square famrer's market?

[thespian.livejournal.com]

the farmer's market at Dewey Square (south station) accepts EBT cards and some WIC things, when appropriate. In addition to accepting the cards, they match your money, up to $10 a day, so you can get $20 of food for $10 at the market when you're on assistance. You go to the market manager, and they swipe your card and present you with coupons, worth $1 or $5 for use in the market.

I want to recommend this program to a friend of mine, and I was wondering if anyone knows if the market manager at Davis Square is set up to do these transactions, and second, if they are able to do the money matching.

Comments

[jadelennox]

it's probably also worth asking this in farmersmkt_by_t. It's possible that community has a 100% overlap with this one, but I'm not sure, actually.

Yes. (supposedly)

[turil.livejournal.com]

I was meaning to post something about this, as it's new and exciting, but hadn't gotten around to it, so thanks for posting!

Yes, supposedly all the Eastern Massachusetts farmer's markets take EBT. (Here's a list (http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farmersmarkets.php?zip=02139&pay=3&day=0&startrow=1).) Whether the machine is working, and everything goes smoothly is another story, but it should work. Also, you can apparently use credit cards too, now, since they have the machine.

I can personally confirm that the Central Square in Cambridge, and Union Square in Somerville take EBT (though last Saturday the one in Union almost ran out of tokens, and they had to scramble around and get some from the vendors so they could give them to me.

It's great, and I encourage people to use this option, and to spread the word, since something like 10% of the US human population is on food stamps (or "SNAP" if you want to use the official new term for the Supplimental Nutritional Assistance Program). So I imagine everyone probably knows a few people who use them.

Hmmmmm...

[turil.livejournal.com]

I also checked the official massfarmersmarkets.org, and it says "EBT coming" on the Davis Square listing. So, it's possible they don't have it yet.

Bonus money...

[turil.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if all markets are different, but at the Union Square one, you only get $2 for every $10 you spend. In Boston, there is a different program, where you get double your money. But that's only for Boston residents (you get a special card or something mailed to you, I believe).

Yes!

[artguychris.livejournal.com]

I just got an apropos resistat mailing:

* The Davis Square and Union Square farmers markets are now accepting EBT/SNAP, debit and credit! Spread the word.

It doesn't mention the match, though.

[ron_newman]

I just came back from the Davis Square market. They intend to take EBT cards but the machine wasn't yet working this week. They hope to start accepting EBT, credit, and debit cards next week. They will match the first $10 of EBT credit.