The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) is the largest federal nutrition program serving an average of 41.5 million people per month. The program serves Americans in need, is proven to help stimulate the local economy, and is also a source of funding that supports the local food system. According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, every $1 billion of retail generated by SNAP creates $340 million in farm production, $110 million in farm value-added product sales, and 3,300 farm jobs. SNAP funds are accessible through an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card that works like a credit card. To serve your SNAP community means becoming an authorized SNAP retailer and acquiring a payment system that also accepts EBT.
MarketLink has been helping farmers and farmers’ markets with accepting SNAP EBT for free since 2013. Currently a program of the Farmers Food Assistance Bureau (FFAB), MarketLink helps farmers and farmer’s markets expand their customer base to SNAP EBT participants. Through a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service, MarketLink has built a national network of farmers and farmers’ markets that have redeemed more than $104 million in SNAP sales since 2016.
MarketLink helps farmers and markets in two ways: 1. By guiding them through the USDA SNAP Retailer Application, and 2. By providing grant-funded SNAP processing equipment, which covers a free Bluetooth card reader and a one-year subscription to the SNAP Point-of-Sale App called TotilPay Go (TPG)*. Applicants are not obligated to use the grant-funded equipment if they utilize MarketLink’s assistance with the SNAP Retailer Application. MarketLink can help applicants explore all equipment options available to them. Additionally, applicants are not required to have applied for SNAP with MarketLink’s assistance to utilize the grant funded equipment.
MarketLink also works with community organizations and state programs supporting farmers and farmers markets’ looking to accept SNAP EBT. They do this in several ways:
- Scheduling time with organizations virtually to review the program, the SNAP Retailer Application process, and Q&A about how they can support the organization and the communities they work with.
- Hosting “How to accept SNAP at your Farm or Farmers’ Market” webinars
- Conducting in-person SNAP authorization sign-up days
- Exhibiting and presenting at events and conferences
- Providing flyers, instructional guides, and social media templates to help share our program’s information with an organization’s network
As part of the 2014 Farm Bill, states are required to provide no-cost wired EBT equipment to eligible farmers’ markets and direct marketing farmers. Twenty-nine states received funding in 2019 to provide free equipment with some states even offering wireless equipment. Contact your state’s “SNAP Directory of Resources” if you live in one of the twenty-nine states to find out if you qualify for equipment. If your state does not offer free equipment or you received equipment from your state already but the equipment no longer works, you may be eligible for new wireless equipment through the MarketLink program.
Learn more about MarketLink by going to their website here. The best way to see if you are eligible for the program is to complete their eligibility assessment and someone from their team will contact you shortly after.
*The TotilPay Go mobile app and SNAP equipment program under Novo Dia Group was recently acquired by the Farmers Food Assistance Bureau (FFAB).
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