Glossary

There are terms and acronyms peppered throughout the website that you may not be familiar with. Use this glossary to determine what they mean! If you do not see the word or acronym you're looking for on this list, contact us!

CVV

Cash Value Voucher – the term used in some other states for the FVC program.

EBT

Electronic Benefit Transfer: the means by which SNAP recipients get their benefits which works like a bank debit card and therefore requires a card-reader machine (which usually must be wireless at farmers markets due to a lack of landlines and electricity)

FMC

Farmers Market Coalition (https://farmersmarketcoalition.org)

FMNP

Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program: grant program by USDA for state agencies to issue checks for low-income Women, Infants, Children (WIC-FMNP) & Seniors age 60+ (Seniors FMNP) to purchase fresh fruits & vegetables at farmers’ markets.

FNS

Food & Nutrition Services, a department of USDA (www.fns.usda.gov)

FVC

Fruit & Vegetable Check Program: a WIC program that issues checks to purchase fresh produce that may be accepted at farmers markets.

Incentive Programs

Programs at farmers markets that provide incentives for federal nutrition benefit program participants to use these instruments; they are often in the form of matching so that participants can increase how much they can spend at market. These are usually administered with grant funding so vary by market, and are also known by terms like double value coupon program (DVCP), matching, double dollar, Fresh Checks, etc.

NAFMNP

National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs (www.nafmnp.org)

NDG

Novo Dia Group – technology services and software development firm that designed Mobile Market+, which is an application designed to enable farmer’s market and small non-traditional retailers the ability to process WIC, SNAP, credit and debit transactions.

OSA

Online Store Application, the term that USDA FNS uses to refer to the online application to become an authorized retailer to accept SNAP.

POS

Point of sale or service: this is reference to the location where the transaction takes place, so a machine that accepts EBT may be referred to as “POS terminal” at the farmers market

SNAP

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps (http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/)

Square

Credit card processing company (www.squareup.com).

USDA

United States Department of Agriculture (www.usda.gov)

WIC

Women, Infants and Children (http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/)

WP

World Pay – payment processing services company which enables businesses of all sizes to accept payments securely and quickly which operates in 40 countries and processes millions of transactions every day.