Local non-profit organizations discuss success of Market Dollar program

 

By Richard Riosa

Members of local non-profit organizations will be evaluating the success of the farmers’ Market Dollar program which ran in Windsor from July to October.

Funded by the United Way of Windsor-Essex County and organized by Food Matters Windsor-Essex County, Pathway to Potential and the Downtown Windsor Farmers’ Market, the pilot version of the program offered low-income families who struggle to afford groceries printed “Market Dollar” vouchers valued at $20. The vouchers were distributed by the City of Windsor’s social services department.

Director of community impact and development for the United Way Lorraine Goddard said the charity decided to fund the program because it was designed to promote healthy, local foods.

“Over the last three years, we’ve really made an effort to be able to improve access to healthy food and culturally diverse food,” said Goddard.

Goddard said the downtown farmers’ market was chosen for the pilot because of its accessible location and close proximity to many of the city’s low-income housing areas.

“A lot of the affordable housing tends to be in the downtown core and so the farmers’ market downtown was a really good fit,” said Goddard.

Although the United Way provided $10,000 toward vouchers for the pilot, Goddard said this number is only a small per cent of the organization’s operating budget. She said she will be awaiting the results of the pilot to decide if additional funding will be made available to the program.

Michele Legere, coordinator of Food Matters, said she has received a large amount of positive feedback from participants of the program. She said roughly 307 of 500 vouchers were redeemed throughout the pilot.

“We heard that people liked to go there (the downtown farmers’ market), that they felt like they were actively participating in their community in a way they weren’t able to before (the program began),” said Legere.

Legere said most of the vouchers were used to purchase fresh local produce and meats. Aside from the benefits of healthier eating, she said the program has also increased community engagement among downtown residents.

General manager of the Downtown Farmers’ Market Steve Green said many of the people who redeemed the vouchers were new customers for the market. He said because transportation is an issue for many low-income families, the market is able to “bring the farm to them”.

“Watching the folks that received the vouchers spend time talking to the folks that grew the food and explain what’s there, how it can be used, how they can stretch their grocery dollars, watching the kids running around and be able to purchase a treat with their Market Dollars, that was very successful to me,” said Green.

Green said he hopes to see the program expand to other farmers’ markets in the city and is also open to having the program run year-round.

According to Legere, a community reporting event will be held Nov. 26 to determine the direction the program will take moving forward.