Rye's Down to Earth Farmers Market will begin accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. SNAP offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities. SNAP is the largest program in the domestic hunger safety net.
Shoppers in Rye can easily make SNAP purchases by presenting their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card at the market manager’s tent. The shopper will specify how much they would like to withdraw from their SNAP account and, as in a supermarket, the market manager will swipe the shopper’s EBT card at a mobile processing terminal. Then the shopper will be given wooden tokens to pay for their purchases at the various vendor stands.
The tokens will be welcomed by most of the farmers and food makers at the farmers markets, giving SNAP users a wide variety of locally farmed and prepared foods to choose from. Following the USDA guidelines, the only items that SNAP cannot be used for are personal care products, alcohol, hot foods and any foods intended to be eaten on site.
The Rye market is open Sundays, 8:30AM – 2:00PM, May 13th to December 2nd and is located in the parking lot on Theodore Fremd Avenue.
