Posted on 08/09/2017 6:46:21 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
A $3.9 million federal grant awarded to the California Department of Food and Agriculture will help the state expand a program that encourages low-income people to shop at farmers markets, state officials announced this week.
In July, the department launched the California Nutrition Incentive Program, or CNIP, which rewards recipients of CalFresh food stamps who buy fruits and vegetables grown in the state by doubling the value of their vouchers when they purchase at 339 farmers markets throughout the state.
The program’s latest infusion of funds, a three-year Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, builds on several million dollars in private funding and $5 million initially allocated by the state Legislature in 2016 to match federal dollars.
“Primarily, it’s a great way to provide nutritious food to needy Californians, and beyond that, also a way to boost the activities of farmers markets,” said Steve Lyle, state food and agriculture department spokesman.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Do they actually have to buy produce at these farmers’ markets, or will the “farmers” start selling cases of pop and chips?
there are bargains to be had together with better quality if you know what to look for
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True, I don’t disagree with you on that point. However, we are talking about very low income folks here, which means they are trying to stretch dollars. (Yes, they waste a lot of money on unwise and unhealthy purchases but that’s for another discussion.) When you are having a hard time making ends meet, shopping for quality food items is not real high on your priority list. Maybe it should be, but the reality is that when you have to pay your rent, clothing, utilities and other necessities of life there’s often precious little money left over.
I would like to eat gourmet cuisine, organic foods, premium beef (all natural, dry aged to guarantee taste and tenderness!), and drink fine beverages to compliment my meals everyday but my budget priorities don’t allow for it so I settle for something less until such time as I can afford to splurge. Its kind of like the food version of Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs. ;)
Interesting comment. We really need to re-examine this whole GRANT thing and put the Genie back in the bottle. Its out of control and tremendously wasteful. It also takes huge bureaucratic infrastructures to dole all this money out.
So many progams in the government are wasteful, redundant and mismanaged. The spending could be dramatically cut in short order if the political will was there.
Not true. Theyve been giving these vouchers away for years. I actually quit going to farmers markets because of them. When I got there everything good was gone. And if they’re still there they’ll shove you out of the way to get what they want.
First time it happened I asked the guy.....what happened to all your produce? It’s all gone. He simply replied.....vouchers. I asked a friend who worked at the welfare dept and she explained it to me.
A lot of our welfare clients in California are Mexican....and they love fresh produce.
Just another Gibmedat program aimed at the nation’s farmers.
I used to sell to them. They put on a pretty good act about being rock-ribbed patriotic Conservatives.
Until you try and cut their favorite subsidy program. Then it’s Katy Bar the Door.
I was thinking this too. If it doesn’t go in a microwave or get slapped between two pieces of bread, they are not going to buy it.
Everyone has their hand in Uncle Sam’s pocket! And as you point out the money goes primarily to the government bureaucrats and the non-profits. So what it really is, is a RAT vote-buying scheme.
I think the federal agriculture department was needed, long ago. Now, farming has “grown up” immensely, the nation has no problems growing and distributing the food it needs, and exporting food like never before as well. We no longer need federal ag dep meddling, subsidies, grant programs or anything else. State agencies alone, and specialized for their own state can do a good enough job without the feds. The depression has been over long ago. Time to dump many things that began just because there was a depression.
“So many progams in the government are wasteful, redundant and mismanaged. The spending could be dramatically cut in short order if the political will was there.”
And just think of the side benefit of throwing people out of work who have been attached to our wallets like a school of Remoras. I mean Washington DC votes 96% RAT, and our major cities are the same and they, like DC are where all the “government offices” are located. Show me the bureaucrat who actually thinks about the money he’s passing out as partly his contribution. They all seem to think that the money comes from some Netherland where it’s grown, and not confiscated from working people.
Our farmers market has a table where they SIGN people up for food stamp programs
Dwight Eisenhower said of the USDA way back in the 1950’s when he was president, “It’s hard to be a farmer when your plow is a pencil and you are 2,000 miles from a cornfield.”
And now that the “family farm” is long gone, the rationale for the USDA has passed. It’s now more of a “commodity distribution facilitator,” that an agency that “helps farmers.”
I think that all government funding to advertise government services should be stopped.
I think that all government funding to advertise government services should be stopped.
Doubling their food buying dollars won’t come anywhere close to the cost difference between high priced farmers markets and the grocery store.
Which congress critter is lining his wallet with this bill?
Oh well, we do not expect progressives to have ideas that actually work, do we?
Especially CA progressives, who are stupid beyond definition.
-PJ
Yep
I live in a semi-rural area, and there is a farmer not far from me who carts his produce stand out near the road every morning. Occasionally, he is doing the selling, but, usually, the stand is staffed by a paid worker.
Recently, I overheard part of said worker’s conversation with another produce stand patron. Worker was telling patron about a conversation she had had with a “foodstamp” recipient. Apparently, Worker was encouraging the welfare person to get a job at the produce stand. Worker said that when she mentioned that Welfare Girl could get free food —I guess the farmer lets the worker take home the leftovers — Welfare Girl said, “Yeah, but then I’d have to cook it.” Worker was thoroughly disgusted with the attitude.
Well said!
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