LFP Farmers Market offers new Fresh Bucks Program to low-income neighbors

By Amy Whittenburg

Executive Director, Third Place Commons

You may think you know all about the Lake Forest Park Farmers Market, but do you know about our food assistance programs for our low-income neighbors?

Thanks to the generous support of donors to Third Place Commons (the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that presents the LFP Farmers Market), our long-running Market Bucks program is a staple of the market season.

Through Market Bucks, we provide food assistance to hundreds of local, food-insecure families and individuals with the help of distribution partners like Ballinger Homes, Hopelink, the Shoreline Lake Forest Park Senior Center, the Dale Turner Family YMCA, and area schools and lunch programs.

This year’s Market Bucks funders include Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Congregation, the Lake Forest Park Garden Club, and the Rotary Club of Lake Forest Park. We are so grateful for the support and partnership of all of these organizations for making this important work possible year after year!

This year, we are delighted to announce the addition of Fresh Bucks, a program designed to support increased access to the healthy fruits and vegetables that are often neglected when funds are low.

Fresh Bucks go hand-in-hand with the SNAP benefits that we have long accepted at the market. When folks use their SNAP/EBT cards at the farmers market, we will match their SNAP benefits dollar-for-dollar – up to $10 per market day – with Fresh Bucks vouchers that can be used at the market exclusively for fruits, vegetables, herbs, and vegetable starts.

So if someone spends $10 of their SNAP benefits, they’ll get $20 of spending power at the market. In short, they’ll double their money!

We are thrilled to offer this exciting program and delighted to see so many of our neighbors in need taking advantage of this additional spending power. In addition to Market Bucks, SNAP benefits, and now Fresh Bucks, the Lake Forest Park Farmers Market also gladly accepts Senior/WIC vouchers. (Visit our website to read more.)

The LFP Farmers Market, located in the parking lot of LFP Town Center next to City Hall, is open 10am to 3pm every Sunday through October 16th and welcomes 7000 to 9000 visitors per week. And thanks to programs like Market Bucks, SNAP, and now Fresh Bucks, more people than ever before will be able to access all the healthy and delicious options the market has to offer!