{"id":16075,"date":"2020-09-10T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=16075"},"modified":"2020-08-25T11:35:43","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T15:35:43","slug":"wic-farmers-market-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/09\/10\/wic-farmers-market-program\/","title":{"rendered":"WIC Farmers Market Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"258\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Farm2WIC-300x258.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16076\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The WIC (Women,\nInfants, Children) Program can be a helpful source of healthy food for\nlow-income pregnant and post-partum women, infants, and children up to age 5.\nIt includes many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/08\/20\/wic-programs-offer-foods-for-vegans\/\">options\nfor vegans<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Many states participate\nin the WIC Famers\u2019 Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). The program currently\noperates in 39 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin\nIslands, and 6 Indian Tribal Organizations; however, it is not always available\nin all areas of a state. This program was created to benefit both WIC participants\nand local farmers. Women, infants (over 4 months old), and children (1 to 5\nyears old) that have been certified to receive WIC benefits or who are on a\nwaiting list for WIC are eligible to participate in this program, although some\nstates may not provide farmers\u2019 market vouchers for every participant\ncategory.&nbsp; If your state has this\nprogram, you can receive special coupons (<em>Farmers\u2019\nMarket Nutrition Program<\/em> coupons) in addition to your regular WIC benefits.\nThese coupons can be used to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs from farmers,\nfarmers&#8217; markets, or roadside stands that have been approved by the state\nagency to accept FMNP coupons. Some states only allow these coupons to be used\nto buy specific foods grown in the state to encourage recipients to support\nfarmers in their own state. Look for a sign \u2013 <em>Farmers\u2019 Market Coupons Accepted<\/em> \u2013 to find a farmer who\nparticipates in the program. When you\u2019ve chosen your fruits and vegetables,\ngive the farmer your coupon. No change is given so you may be encouraged to\nchoose more produce if your selection is less than the amount on the coupon.\nEach state decides the amount of this benefit. Typically, it is between $10 and\n$30 per year per eligible family member although some state agencies add\nadditional funding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In addition to <em>Farmers\u2019 Market Nutrition Program<\/em>\ncoupons, some states also allow you to use the vouchers for fruits and\nvegetables that you receive as a part of your WIC package at some farmers\u2019\nmarkets. These <em>Cash Value Vouchers<\/em>\nare issued monthly and provide eligible women with $11 per month and eligible\nchildren with $8 per month to purchase fruits and vegetables.&nbsp; These vouchers are a part of the WIC package\nin all states although only some states allow them to be redeemed at specified farmers\u2019\nmarkets.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To see a list of\nstates and other entities that participate in the Farmers\u2019 Market Nutrition\nProgram go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fns.usda.gov\/farmers-market-nutrition-program-participating-state-agencies\">&nbsp;https:\/\/www.fns.usda.gov\/contacts?f[0]=program%3A30\n<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Contact your\nstate WIC agency for more information about using the <em>Cash Value Vouchers<\/em> at farmers\u2019 markets. A list of state agencies\u2019\ncontact information is available at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fns.usda.gov\/contacts?f%5B0%5D=program%3A32\">https:\/\/www.fns.usda.gov\/contacts?f%5B0%5D=program%3A32<\/a>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD The WIC (Women, Infants, Children) Program can be a helpful source of healthy food for low-income pregnant and post-partum women, infants, and children up to age 5. It includes many options for vegans. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Many states participate in the WIC Famers\u2019 Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). The program currently operates in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16077,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075\/revisions\/16077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}