Maria Driver visits the Carrboro Farmers Market nearly every week with her family. Before shopping the local vendors though, her first stop is typically the information booth. It is where she can pick up wooden Double Bucks tokens.
The program allows households with SNAP/EBT benefits to double their benefits to spend at Triangle markets. Unlike other market incentive programs that may only apply to fruits and vegetables, locals like Driver can spend Double Bucks on any SNAP eligible item, like local meats and seasonal products.
“I think [the program is] amazing because it allows us to get any local and fresh produce,” the market-goer said. “It allows us to be able to afford to feed our families in the right way.”
The program served more than 400 Orange County families last year. Carrboro Farmers Market Director Maggie Funkhouser said the Orange County markets were set to pass that number until this summer when the markets began capping transactions at $50 in an effort to conserve funding.
Triangle markets began working collaboratively in 2019 to provide Double Bucks with a Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina sponsorship, which allowed them to match unlimited transactions. Prior to the three-year sponsorship, each market worked individually to secure funding for the incentive, matching up to a certain amount like $10, Funkhouser explained.
A grant from Duke Health sustained the program at six Triangle markets for the 2023 season, but now leaves the program without a major funding source, said Chapel Hill’s market director Kate Underhill.
“We’ve been seeing it coming,” she said. “We always hope that Duke Health will continue to [fund the program], but that’s what happens a lot with funders. They decide that they’re going to refocus their energies somewhere else in a different aspect.”
The Durham County markets have put leftover funding from a pandemic-relief county grant towards the Double Bucks program for next year, but Underhill explained the Orange County markets have not received something similar.
The Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Eno River (Hillsborough) Farmers’ Markets launched a GoFundMe over the summer, raising about $7,000 of the $30,000 goal. Underhill said it is enough to support the program through the end of the calendar year, adding the program has also been able to stretch leftover dollars from last year’s grant.
But the Chapel Hill market manager said she is unsure what next year will look like for the program in Orange County. North Carolina’s Farmers Market Network is working on offering statewide funding for the program, but she said it is not something that will help come January. And it takes a big effort for small nonprofit organizations to be on a constant search for grant opportunities, she added.
“It’s really hard to be scrambling,” Underhill said. “It’s an important program for us and our community, for our farmers and vendors. We hope that something will come through and continue the program.”
Funkhouser said she does not see the program pausing any time soon, but the markets would need a significant sponsor to return to matching 100 percent of customer transactions, noting the Carrboro market redeemed nearly $100,000 in SNAP and Double Bucks combined last year. She explained it would only be a last resort to end the program, as Double Bucks are something she wants to consistently offer shoppers.
“I think all the Triangle markets would probably say the same thing that we would only pause or end the program in a dire emergency,” she said. “And so we’re really trying to do everything we can to ensure that the program can stay consistent for our customers.”
SNAP-eligible items at Triangle farmers markets.
The Carrboro market was one of the first markets in North Carolina to accept SNAP benefits nearly 15 years ago, and Graham Family Farm has participated since its start. Patricia Graham said she is glad the Double Bucks program exists because it means more people have access to the market’s offerings.
“Sometimes it can be pricey,” she said. “I’m on a budget and just like everybody else is probably on a budget and it just gives them one more step to have something healthy, at least the option.”
Double Bucks shoppers have told Funkhouser the program helps their mental health to socialize at the markets, talking directly to the vendors who they purchase their food from, the Carrboro’s farmers market director said.
“I think it means a lot to them to be able to come to this wonderful community space on Saturday mornings or Wednesday afternoons and be able to purchase really nutrient dense, high quality food just like any other family,” Funkhouser said.
The Carrboro Farmers Market is held every Wednesday from 3 p.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m.-12 p.m.
The Chapel Hill Farmers Market is held every Tuesday from 3 p.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m.-12 p.m.
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