On a rainy June Monday at the Central Square Farmers Market, a young staffer at Dick’s Market Garden helps a woman use her EBT card for HIP purchases while a few other patrons wait patiently. On a blazing hot Saturday morning at the Union Square Farmers Market in Somerville, the line for Hutchins Farm of Concord is long, with masked shoppers standing on markers six feet apart. In the middle of Boston at Copley Square, the scene is startlingly different from previous seasons when buyers pressed against each other, sometimes jostling to push forward in lines. But though the mood seems solemn this summer, a young staffer at Stillman’s Farm stand, wearing a yellow-flower-printed mask, cheerily asks “How are you?” as she checks that a shopper’s credit purchase went through. 

The 2020 farmers market season has been unlike any other. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed everyone’s lives in myriad ways since March, also upended the local market season. Instead of neighbors shaking hands, children running around and shoppers shucking their own corn, there are hand-sanitizing stations, arrows directing one-way traffic and masked customers and vendors. The vibe is different, but farmers and market managers say that despite restrictions people seem thrilled to be outside, and happy to be able to buy local food. 

For growing numbers of families in need, farmers markets, farm stands and mobile markets that accept state HIP (Healthy Incentives Program) credits are more than ever a lifeline to healthy eating. The crisis has, in some ways, zeroed attention on the essence: It’s about the food.

FARMERS’ PERSPECTIVE

Talking to farmers is illustrative. Todd Sandstrum, farm manager of ReVision Urban Farm of Dorchester, says his aim is “to produce really local food and get it to people who need it.” This year has been very different, he says. For one thing, his farm—a nonprofit that supports programs for homelessness, drug rehabilitation and job training—typically has corporate volunteer teams of 10 to 15 people at a time to work and harvest its two fields in Dorchester. But that’s not possible during COVID restrictions this year, so three or four staffers have to do all the work. Customer interactions at ReVision’s farm stand and the Roslindale Farmers Market are also much different. “Now it’s much more structured,” Sandstrum says. “You’re going to a farmers market on a mission: to get something.” 

Stephen Violette of Dick’s Market Garden in Lunenburg, which sells at 13 area farmers markets, agrees that this has been an unusual season. At the start of the season, bedding plants for home gardeners sold better than ever. But in July sales of other produce were mixed, up at some markets and holding steady or down a little at others. Fears of using public transportation and other concerns related to the pandemic might have kept some customers away, he thinks. But he’s working to bring his produce, from his 200-acre family farm, to a more diverse clientele. “We try to service everyone,” he says, noting that this year he’s instituted a tiny market at a Quincy Housing Authority high rise for elderly and disabled “to go directly to the communities that need food.”

ROCKY START TO SEASON

When COVID started sweeping through the United States in early March, right around the weeks when Massachusetts farmers were getting ready to plant outdoors, many wondered whether there would be a summer farmers market season at all this year. How would organizers handle crowds? Would customers come? Would farmers grow crops that would go unsold? But in late March Governor Charlie Baker deemed farmers markets and farm stands essential businesses, partly because of unemployment and food insecurity. The innovative state HIP program, designed to give low-income SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) recipients a way to get healthy produce and at the same time support local farming, was boosted in July when the state added $5 million more to HIP funds and authorized 39 new vendors, many of whom are smaller farmers and people of color. HIP, which reimburses SNAP recipients dollar-for-dollar when they buy fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, farm stands and mobile markets, gives $40 credit monthly to households of one or two people, $60 monthly for households of three to five and $80 monthly for households of six or more.

There’s sometimes a complaint that farmers markets are for the well-heeled, the products too expensive and geared to a foodie clientele. But the reaction to HIP since its inauguration in late 2017 has shown not only that there’s a need and a desire by lower-income people for local, fresh produce, but that farmers are eager to sell to this clientele. State statistics at midyear showed 4,731 more clients used HIP from January to July 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Although HIP usage was down in the summer from 2019, it’s rising and more eligible households are using HIP each month.

To Commissioner John Lebeaux of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, HIP has been very positive for local farming. “Every one of those [HIP] dollars goes into farm revenues,” he says. The increase in vendors who will be able to get produce to more diverse markets and other state efforts can help both SNAP recipients and the local food movement, he says, adding that all consumers seem to be increasingly appreciative of local food during the pandemic.

HELPING THOSE IN NEED

Some farmers markets go beyond the state funds. In early August, Hal Shubin, chairman of the Belmont Food Collaborative, which runs the town’s farmers market, said: “We’ve had nine weeks this year and every week has been higher than the week before” for SNAP and HIP sales. The Belmont collaborative doubles the amount that HIP users can spend at the market, he explains. A shopper using $20 worth of HIP credit is given $40 in tokens to spend on fruits and vegetables. The collaborative raises funds to do this, and Shubin says the “thank yous” from people who realize that they can stretch their SNAP benefits farther and eat healthy food are heartwarming. “It makes life easier for their families,” he says, adding that some marketgoers who aren’t on SNAP walk into the market manager tent to give donations, and others sponsor larger gifts. “People want to help,” he says. Other programs this year provide $2.50 coupons to farmers market shoppers in need, and several cities such as Somerville, Boston and Cambridge provide funds, especially for low-income elderly.

The need comes into sharp focus when you talk to Erin McAleer, president of Project Bread, which has a hotline on the state HIP website for those seeking food aid. In June, the hotline received 8,500 calls, six-and-a-half times the volume a year ago. “We expect the numbers to rise,” she says as the pandemic and the resulting economic upheaval continue. The “food insecurity is really, really concerning.” Project Bread has determined that 17.3% of the households in the state are food insecure, up from 9.3% last year. 

One of the challenges for those with low incomes on SNAP is that payments often run out before the month is up. HIP, with its dollar-for-dollar match for local fruits and vegetables, stretches that. Yet often those in need don’t know about HIP. McAlear recalls telling a senior in Agawam about HIP and seeing the smile on her face when she realized she could afford healthy produce. Her organization and other nonprofits are seeking to have SNAP expanded since those enrolled are “automatically eligible for WIC, school meals and HIP.” Rather than pushing those families with food insecurity to food banks, the hope is that SNAP will help them in many ways with food nutrition and healthy eating.

EXPANDING MARKETS FOR LOCAL FOOD

The state’s addition of 39 vendors to HIP may help expand the availability of local food and introduce those in low-income areas to HIP as a way to afford healthy fruits and vegetables. “The program has made farmers and markets aware that there is a demand in low-income areas,” says Winton Pitcoff of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative. Besides the Dick’s Market Garden stand in Quincy, there are new markets in Dorchester, Gloucester and Springfield and other locations. Now HIP can be used for CSA shares, he says, and farmers have “really stepped up” to bring local, nutritional food to areas that might have been considered food deserts. 

The Food Project runs the Central Square Farmers Market in Lynn, which on an August afternoon had three stands near the colorful murals on walls and bridges. The shoppers waiting in line are a very diverse bunch; some gather at Paula’s Produce to buy Asian vegetables like bitter melon and leafy greens; other shoppers head to Riverdale, where a staff member asks them in Spanish to wait in line, and others select tomatoes at Farmer Dave’s stand. John Wang, the North Shore regional director of The Food Project, says 70% of shoppers here qualify for SNAP, and therefore for HIP, but even so just a small percentage used HIP. This year involved more safety procedures and cleaning protocols, but attendance at the market is growing. In order to support the farms, The Food Project, which has several large farms and sells at markets in Boston and elsewhere, does not have a Lynn stand in order to support the other farmers.

However, he adds that the organization is concentrating on expanding mobile markets in lower-income areas in Lynn. Along with offering healthy fruits and vegetables, the mobile market managers try to spread the word about HIP by developing an awareness campaign, distributing flyers with symbols that transcend language barriers and other materials. By August, the Food Project on the North Shore had tripled the number of mobile markets, and especially targets low-income elderly in housing projects. 

As the farmers market season stretches into autumn, in a pandemic that has challenged everyone, the hope is that local farmers can help feed those in need. As McAleer of Project Bread says: Programs such as HIP, which benefit local farmers as well as those in need, are “good for families and good for the economy.”

This story appeared in the Fall/Holiday 2020 issue.