Author: Nichole Borchard

Artisan Day event brings signs of hope to Niagara Falls City Market

Original Publisher: Niagara Gazette

Reporter: Mark Sheer

Artisan Day event brings signs of hope to Niagara Falls City Market

The SnobKnockers played outdoors at the Niagara Falls City Market on Friday.

Next door to them, in a trailer that serves as Lend a Leaf’s business on wheels, Jessica Nyland served specialty coffees and teas.

Nyland was part of a larger group of vendors — mostly made up of local farmers — who were selling apples and empanadas and chicken soup and all manner of food and homemade items along the brick-paved area beneath the awning where City Market sellers have been selling fresh produce and more to customers for years.

Friday’s festivities were part of an Artisan Market, a special event designed to breath more life into what has been a staple off Pine Avenue near 18th Street for, by most estimates at least 100 years, or at least more years than most people who still frequent the market can remember.

Sheri Senek’s family business, Senek Farms, which has been in business in Ransomville for a century now, has been a presence at the Falls market for decades. The Senek family truck makes an appearance each week, all year long.

To Senek, hearing the SnobKnockers play while watching more customers engage with a wider variety of vendors represented two things she’s wanted most for the market for many years: Signs of progress and hope.

“This is amazing,” said Senek, whose father-in-law, Senek Farms founder John Senek started the family tradition of selling produce at the Falls market decades ago. “This is what we’re hoping for. We’ve got new vendors that we’re hoping will continue to come.”

“This is what we do,” she added. “We’re farmers. We’ve always come here. We brought our produce to the city. This market has always been an important part of this community.”

Up until this year, the city market was managed, under a deal struck with Niagara Falls city government in 1999, by Lewiston businessman Al Muto. In May, city lawmakers, at the urging of Mayor Robert Restaino’s administration, agreed to buy Muto out of his market lease, which ran through July 2032, with an additional 44-year option that could have been extended to 2076.

City officials agreed to spend $2 million in American Rescue Plan funds to terminate the city’s lease with Muto Development and reacquire control of the market and six adjacent properties. They are now working with various partners in hopes of reimagining the space for vendors, tenants and local residents.

One main partner is the Field and Fork Network, Inc., a non-profit organization that works with communities in an effort to promote more sustainable food systems. The Falls City Council agreed in August to enter into a management agreement for the market with the organization. That same month, the Network announced that it had reached an agreement to allow city market vendors to accept Supplemental Nutrition Program, or SNAP benefits, more commonly known as food stamps.

Senek said it has been a big boost for farmers who frequent the market and for Falls residents who need access to fresh, homegrown fruits and vegetables.

“It’s been a big benefit,” she said.

Tony Poletti, owner of the Marketside restaurant at the City Market and president of the Pine Avenue Redevelopment Project, Inc., a local group dedicated to reimagining the Pine Avenue commercial strip, said he’s hopeful better days are ahead for the market, mainly because it feels to him like the right organizations and people are now coming together to make it better.

“There’s a lot of good people that are focused on the right things so I have a positive outlook for the future of Pine Avenue and the city market,” said Poletti, who served chicken soup to customers during Friday’s event.

Nyland, a DeVeaux resident who started her coffee-and-tea-on-the-go business a year and a half ago, said she heard from a lot of market “regulars” who were excited to see more activity than they have seen in recent years. She said she’s looking forward to coming back in the future.

“It’s so nice to see people interacting with one another,” she said.

The SnobKnockers — a trio that includes local bed and breakfast owner Shelia Zuni, Michael Sheffield and George Kobas — entertained the market crowd throughout the morning and into the afternoon.

Zuni said the band would return to the market if invited and she hopes other local bands will begin to view the space as a place where they can — like the farmers and the vendors — engage with the community.

“There’s so much potential here,” she said.

Anne Marie DeRusso agrees.

The new director for the City Market helped organize Friday’s Artisan Day. While it is the final special event planned for 2022, DeRusso said Field and Fork Network and other partners intend to spend the winter months planning more events and, hopefully, more market improvements next year. She said part of the effort will involve exploring and promoting more of the market’s rich history.

“Mainly, it’s bringing business into the city, but it’s also getting good local produce into people’s hands,” she said.

How can people in and around Niagara Falls support the market moving forward?

DeRusso said, simply: Show up, not just on special event days but as frequently as possible.

“If we want the market to be successful, then we need people to come out,” she said.

Field & Fork Network Awarded ‘Organization of the Year’ by Leadership Niagara

Field and Fork Network Awarded Organization of the Year

Leadership Niagara, the longest running leadership development organization in New York State, has selected Field & Fork Network as their 2022 Organization of the Year. The annual award recognizes an organization whose work positively impacts on the quality of life in Niagara County and strengthens our communities. This year Field & Fork Network was selected by a diverse group of leaders, across sectors, as the winner. The organization was selected because our work exemplifies Leadership Niagara’s mission and core values of excellence, visionary leadership, lifelong learning, regional partnerships, diversity and inclusion and societal responsibility.

Double Up Food Bucks Awareness Week

Buffalo Bills Foundation teams up with Double Up Food Bucks to help families get more fresh produce—and a chance to win tickets to the Green Bay Packers Game

Double Up Awareness Week encourages EBT users in WNY to eat healthier

Buffalo, NY–The Buffalo Bills Foundation is teaming up with Field & Fork Network to bring more fresh produce to Buffalo SNAP/EBT users—and a chance to win tickets to the Bills October 30^th game against the Green Bay Packers. Double Up Food Bucks is a free healthy food incentive program that offers anyone with SNAP a $1 for $1 match on all eligible purchases, up to $20 per day, to purchase fresh local produce.

Double Up Food Bucks Awareness Week aims to increase participation in the program and link families with additional resources to access fresh local produce. The week is sponsored by the Buffalo Bills Foundation and will take place at over 25 locations across Erie & Niagara Counties from September 27^th-October 4^th. Participating locations will offer free $10 produce vouchers, ticket raffle, Bills giveaways and appearances by Billy Buffalo.

Here’s how it works: Anyone who signs up for the Double Up Food Bucks program from September 27^th– October 4, 2022 will get a $10 produce voucher to spend at that market. In addition, individuals who use the program during the week will be entered to win tickets donated by the Buffalo Bills Foundation.

Two grand prize winners will receive (2) Buffalo Bills tickets and parking pass to the October 30, 2022 game against the Green Bay Packers. Winners will be announced on October 10^th.

“The Bills are team players in every sense,” said Lisa French, co-founder and Executive Director of Field & Fork Network. “Their commitment to WNY families shows how much they care about our community—both on and off the field.”

“Partnering with organizations that improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables is a key to the foundations said Buffalo Bills Foundation Executive Director Michelle Roberts. “Field & Fork Network’s Double Up Food Bucks program is a great incentive that helps educate and increase healthy food options for SNAP-eligible WNY residents.”

The partnership is part of the Bills Foundation “Huddle for Hunger” initiative, which supports organizations focused on addressing child hunger, increasing access to nutritious food for families, and supporting healthy eating in the Western New York region. In addition to Double Up Food Bucks Awareness Week, the Foundation has provided a $25,000 grant to the Field & Fork Network.

Learn More About Double Up Awareness Week: click here

Chatham Co-op Launches Double Up Food Bucks

SNAP Incentive program increases healthy food access for low-income families, supports local farmers

Chatham Co-op announces the launch of Double Up Food Bucks New York (Double Up), a program administered by Field & Fork Network, doubling the buying power of SNAP customers. The program matches $1 for $1 federal SNAP dollars, up to $20 per day, to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables, with an emphasis on New York-grown produce.

“Here at the Chatham Co-op we are actively striving to fulfill our mission as a Co-operative. One of the 7 Guiding Principles of Co-operatives is Concern for Community: Co-operatives working for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members. The DUFB Incentive is great for the community as it benefits the customer, the farmer and the local economy. Local, fresh produce should be affordable and available to all, and we believe this incentive is a step in the right direction for our community. Hopefully, it will be a first step, with many more to follow that will benefit the farmer, customer & community. After all, what is more important than real, nutritious food for all?”

Double Up is a win-win-win, it helps low-income families stretch their food budgets, local farmers sell more produce, and more food dollars stay in the local economy. Each has a positive ripple effect of benefits,” said Lisa French, co-founder and Executive Director of Field & Fork Network, which administers the Double Up program in New York State. “By incentivizing the purchasing and consuming of healthier foods, we also aim to improve the overall health and well-being of those we serve.”

Since piloting at 7 Western New York farmers markets in 2014, Double Up has expanded into over 30 counties and 180 locations across the state, serving over 38,000 SNAP households. The program is funded by New York State, the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and over 30 philanthropic organizations across the state. Locally, we would like to recognize the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, who continues to be a key partner in helping us bring the program to life in Columbia County.

Chatham Co-op is open to the public Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm. Additional Double Up sites in the Columbia County include Rolling Grocer 19, Copake Hillsdale Farmer’s Market, and Saugerties Farmers Market. For a complete list of participating Double Up sites and hours of operation, visit www.doubleupnys.com/locations.

About Chatham Co-op

The Chatham Real Food Market is an outlet for the products of our Columbia County farms and kitchens, providing education about food and agriculture, and promoting a more localized food system. The store is co-operatively owned by the members of our community. It aims to strengthen our rural community, develop our food security, and help build a healthy local economy in our county.

About Double Up Food Bucks NY

Double Up Food Bucks is a nationwide fruit and vegetable incentive program, servicing millions of low-income SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) users with a dollar-for-dollar match to increase affordability and access to fresh healthy foods at farmers markets, CSAs, farm stands, mobile markets, and grocery stores. In New York State, Double Up has contributed to 4.8 million pounds of healthy food sales to over 38,000 customers, at more than 180 sites spanning 30 counties. 

 About Field & Fork Network 

Field & Fork Network is a NYS nonprofit organization that connects communities to innovative solutions that foster a sustainable food system.

Field and Fork Network, Inc. Receives Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Community Health Award

Field and Fork Network, Inc. Receives Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Community Health Award

August 24, 2022

UTICA, N.Y. — Excellus BlueCross BlueShield recently awarded Field and Fork Network, Inc. a Community Health Award of $2,000 to support their Double Up Food Bucks program serving Essex County. This program is Field and Fork Network’s signature food access program. It is a nutrition incentive program that matches SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) benefits dollar for dollar, up to twenty dollars per day. The Double Up incentive can only be used to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.

“Double Up is a win-win-win, low-income families bring home more healthy food, local farmers sell more produce, and more food dollars stay in the local economy. Each has a positive ripple effect of benefits,” said Lisa French, co-founder and Executive Director of Field & Fork Network, which administers the Double Up program in New York State. “By incentivizing the purchasing and consuming of healthier foods, we aim to improve the overall health and well-being of those we serve.”

Field & Fork Network is a non-profit organization that connects communities across New York State to innovative solutions that foster a sustainable food system. Key focus areas are agriculture, economic development, youth & community development, healthy neighborhoods and food access. Double Up Food Bucks allows families to stretch their dollar further while improving their overall health. The program’s innovative model allows it to operate in a variety of locations including corner stores, bodegas, ethnic food markets, mobile markets, farm stands and more.

Through a competitive application process, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s Community Health Awards provide funding to launch, expand, and sustain programs and services that promote health. These investments advance health equity by extending the reach of preventive health services or health-promoting programs to vulnerable populations.

The health plan’s corporate giving follows all applicable laws and regulations and does not support funding organizations that conflict with its corporate mission, goals, policies, or products.

“The company’s Community Health Awards demonstrate a corporate commitment to support local organizations that share our mission as a nonprofit health plan,” states Eve Van de Wal, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Utica regional president. “We recognize that addressing social determinants of health, such as food insecurity, is vital to the health and wellbeing of our communities and we are pleased to support Field and Fork Network with this essential community health funding.”

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s Utica region encompasses Clinton, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego and St. Lawrence counties.

# # #

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, is a nonprofit health plan with 1.5 million upstate New York members. The company’s mission is to help people live healthier and more secure lives through access to high-quality, affordable health care. Its products and services include cost-saving prescription drug discounts, wellness tracking tools and access to telemedicine. With more than 3,500 employees, the company is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse workforce to foster innovation and better serve its members. It also encourages employees to engage in their communities by providing paid volunteer time off as one of many benefits. To learn more, visit ExcellusBCBS.com.

Double Up Food Bucks now accepted at Niagara Falls city market

Niagara Falls City Market vendors will now be accepting Double Up Food Bucks benefits to further provide those on SNAP benefits access to healthy foods.

The Field and Fork Network was on hand to make the announcement Friday morning along with Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino, New York State Assemblyman Angelo Morinello, and members of the Buffalo Bills organization including cornerback Siran Neal.

Double Up Food Bucks is a nutrition incentive program funded by the state, the United States Department of Agriculture’s neutron institute on food and agriculture, and private foundations. The program offers individuals and families with SNAP benefits a $1 for $1 match for all their purchases at the market, up to $20 per day.

The Buffalo Bills Foundation also gave the program a $25,000 grant to support it, which they also gave last year.

Tom Lowe, the project director for the Field & Fork network, said that improving the market was the number one priority of the Niagara Falls Food Action Plan that the city council passed in 2018, with the acceptance of SNAP benefits and Double Up Food Bucks a key step to improve it.

The market was authorized to accept SNAP benefits starting September of last year, with Lowe adding that 1 in 3 Niagara Falls residents receive those benefits.

“In the two months SNAP was accepted in the 2021 season, more than $4,000 in SNAP transactions were processed,” Lowe said. “That’s more than $4,000 residents no longer had to take out of their cash budgets, that can be used for transportation, rent, child care, and other expenses.”

Morinello said that all the groups that worked to make this possible work to teach area youth about the importance of fresh food and sees a bright future for the market.

“It benefits citizens, farmers, and as we move forward, it will show children how important it is,” Morinello said.

Mayor Restaino said that earlier this summer, the city concluded its acquisition of the city market and plans on working with its partners of growing the city market.

“We feel not only will this be, as described, a centerpoint for fresh fruit and fresh vegetables,” Restaino said. “We also think this should be an area where we are able to market and showcase the many products that Niagara County has to offer.”

Vendors at the market were already accepting the Double Up benefits as it got busy on Friday. Sheri Senek, of Senek Farms in Ransomville, said that Senek Farms has been setting up at the market for over 80 years, back when it would come by horse and buggy.

“The purpose is to bring fresh fruit to the city, so customers can come and use their SNAP benefits,” Senek said. “We’re trying to grow the market, bring in new vendors, and increase customers.”

“Anything will help,” said Jim Miller, of Miller’s Farm in Hamburg, who has been selling at this market since 1982, setting up on Friday’s for the last five years.

Friday was also Kid’s Day at the market, where kids from the Niagara Falls Boys and Girls club got to explore what the market had to offer and get a photo with Neal and Billy Buffalo.

The Double Up Food Bucks program is already accepted at the North Tonawanda City Market, the Lockport Community Market, the Cornell Community Extension Veggie Van, and several markets in Downtown Buffalo. More program information is available at https://doubleupnys.com.

Link to original article: Double Up Food Bucks now accepted at Niagara Falls city market | Local News | niagara-gazette.com

Why improving food access in Buffalo neighborhoods won’t be a ‘one-size-fits-all solution’

For six years, Alexander Wright lobbied local politicians, foundations and investors to fund his vision for an East Side grocery store. The African Heritage Food Co-Op, he promised, would make affordable, healthy produce accessible in a neighborhood with few convenient options besides dollar and corner stores.

The Buffalo Bills Foundation kicked in $50,000. Donations ticked up during the pandemic and after the 2020 racial justice protests. But it wasn’t until a white supremacist killed 10 Black shoppers at one of the East Side’s few full-service markets that Wright finally secured the $3 million he needed to break ground on the project.

“I hate that it had to take this,” said Wright, a former nonprofit director. “But now we want to do this so perfectly that it shows what front-line communities can do when we have the resources.”

The attack at the Jefferson Avenue Tops, which left several Buffalo neighborhoods without a convenient source of fresh food, made the city a national emblem for the plight of urban “food deserts.” The term, which some researchers have discarded in favor of “food apartheid” or “low-access” areas, generally describes the nation’s thousands of low-income census tracts where an estimated 53.6 million people live outside an easy walk or drive to a full-service supermarket.

Much of Buffalo meets that definition, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the three months since the attack, however, a broad network of local advocates, organizers and social entrepreneurs – plus public and private funders, including the USDA and the State of New York – have accelerated efforts to improve food access in disinvested neighborhoods.

Among other planned projects, the owner of an urban farm off Jefferson Avenue is fundraising to open a $7 million wellness center with greenhouses and clinic space. A faith-based development group announced plans to open a neighborhood grocery. Nonprofit organizations and businesses have received grants and other support to plant vegetable gardens, subsidize fresh produce purchases and install health-screening stations.

No American city has yet bested the stubborn problem of low-grocery access, several policy experts said. But as unprecedented funding and attention flow to the East Side – and as communities across the country re-evaluate their strategies for addressing food-access gaps – Buffalo could serve as the model for a new, collaborative approach that favors a network of community-led projects over one-off public investments.

“There needs to be long-term investment in community-led solutions, education and relationship-building,” said Rebekah Williams, founder of the Buffalo Food Equity Network, which convenes food advocates and organizers of color. “We can’t just keep throwing money at Band-Aid solutions.”

New momentum, funds for community projects

Most American cities have a section like Buffalo’s East Side, if not a literal East Side of their own. During the late 1800s, smoke and other industrial pollutants blowing west to east – the typical direction of prevailing winds – polluted many cities’ east sides and pushed people of means to other areas. Much later, commercial redlining and waves of white flight further sapped these neighborhoods of resources, including grocery stores. In Buffalo and across the country, disparities in grocery store access are highly racialized. An analysis by the Reinvestment Fund, which administers the federal government’s primary grocery access program, found that 18% of Black neighborhoods had limited supermarket access compared to 8% of white ones.

That doesn’t mean there’s nowhere to shop or eat on Buffalo’s East Side, community advocates emphasize. On a recent Saturday morning, while the African Heritage Food Co-Op held a public meeting at a Jefferson Avenue community center, vendors selling chicken wings, baked beans and yellow watermelons set up tents on the sidewalk outside. Raised garden beds dot several of the surrounding blocks, the work of nonprofit organizations rejuvenating vacant lots and empowering people to grow their own food. A corner store up the street sells a dozen types of salads, in addition to the usual doughnuts and pizza.

But rates of food insecurity, poor nutrition and diet-related disease remain high in East Side neighborhoods. More than half of households in several census tracts receive federal food benefits, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

More than a quarter of Buffalo households also don’t own a car – a figure that may be higher among food-insecure people, survey data from the University at Buffalo suggest. Busing from the Jefferson Avenue Tops to the chain’s next-closest location requires a line transfer and takes 40 minutes.

“In the area there is nothing around, nothing,” said Ahmed Saleh, the owner of Mandella Market on Jefferson. “It looks like a ghost town.”

Buffalo food advocates say they don’t just want to build new stores, however – a conventional policy approach that, over the past five to 10 years, has proved ineffective, researchers said. Instead, they hope to build out a network of community food “assets,” from corner gardens to full-blown supermarkets, that create lasting neighborhood wealth and give residents multiple ways to obtain fresh produce and other items.

Some initiatives are small in scope. In May and June, the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund, a group of local donors, granted $635,000 to 85 Black-led organizations, including a food pantry, a grocery delivery service and a community group that helps residents grow their own fruits and vegetables. At five East Side markets, the nonprofit Field & Fork Network has temporarily expanded a state-funded program called Double Up Food Bucks, which helps low-income shoppers stretch their budgets to include more produce.

In July, the Healthy Community Store Initiative – a 6-year-old program that promotes healthier products, including fresh produce, at Buffalo corner stores – announced that a partnership with the American College of Cardiology would fund mini-wellness centers at three locations, including Mandella Market.

“Grocery stores, gardens, mobile markets, farmers markets – we need all of the above,” said Sheila Bass, who coordinates the program.

Larger projects are also underway. On June 14, a faith-based development group announced it had bought four vacant parcels from the City of Buffalo and a local church, with plans to build a new market. Farther east, Allison DeHonney – the CEO of the East Side farming business Urban Fruits and Veggies and its nonprofit arm, Buffalo Go Green – hopes to break ground next year on a wellness center that will house a greenhouse, health clinic and community space.

A third initiative, currently awaiting city development funds, would convert a vacant city-owned building near the Erie County Medical Center into a hydroponic farm and low-cost farmers market called Project Rainfall.

“We want to create an environment that will provide healthy food for the community, but also build community wealth,” said founder Rita Hubbard-Robinson, a former executive at Erie County Medical Center, who began pursuing food advocacy work after noticing the hospital’s large numbers of young diabetes patients.

But the East Side’s marquee food project is still the African Heritage Food Co-Op, which in June received a $3 million investment from New York’s Empire State Development agency and $200,000 from USDA’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The funds will allow Wright to begin construction on the co-op’s future brick-and-mortar home: a fire-damaged historic building in the East Side’s Fruit Belt neighborhood, which served as a grocery store and deli for most of its 146 years.

Architectural renderings of the new space envision an airy, two-story market with community rooms, a year-round greenhouse and a grab-and-go cafe. Wright said he hopes that business from the nearby Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, long criticized as a source of gentrification , will subsidize the endeavor’s less profitable ambitions, such as providing all employees with a living wage, homebuyer education classes and tuition reimbursement. Co-op members also will be invited to reinvest their annual dividends into a grant fund for local Black-owned businesses.

“We want people to know this is a community effort – this is our store, this is where it’s going,” Wright said. “A lot of people need to see that, especially in the demographic we serve. They’ve been used and abused and disheartened.”

Rethinking ‘food deserts’

In some ways, the Buffalo approach represents a break from conventional interventions in low-food access areas. Since roughly 2008, many municipalities have deployed tax breaks, zoning changes and other development incentives to attract grocery stores to neighborhoods without them, said Craig Willingham, the director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. The Jefferson Avenue Tops, opened in 2003 after years of lobbying from nearby residents, received more than $5 million in public loans and grants. Public officials at the time heralded the grocery store’s opening as “the beginning of the East Side’s comeback.”

Research on these interventions has shown, however, that new stores have little direct impact on the shopping habits of nearby residents. People rarely shop at the supermarket closest to their homes, even if their incomes are limited, said Caroline George, a senior research assistant at the Brookings Institution.

Budget and personal preference also influence diet quality far more than easy access to fruits and vegetables. One 2020 research review, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, concluded that building new grocery stores may slightly improve food security in underserved neighborhoods – but it doesn’t impact nutrition.

“The main thing we’ve learned in the past five to 10 years is that just building a grocery store is not a one-size-fits-all solution to community access needs,” said Laine Cidlowski, the food system administrator for the City of Denver.

Instead, researchers and policymakers have increasingly embraced a web of interventions that increase resident purchasing power, foster community ownership and improve public infrastructure that contributes to food access, such as public transit and broadband networks. Much of that work takes place at the federal level. Under the Biden administration, the USDA permanently increased benefit levels in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and expanded an online grocery shopping pilot to include roughly 3 million new households.

More than 300 cities have also adopted local food councils in recent years, said Anne Palmer, a researcher and program director at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, and roughly two dozen have appointed a food policy director to local government. Some of those cities are now experimenting with their own new approaches to affordability, nutrition and disinvestment, from raising the minimum wage to transferring vacant land to Black farmers and growers who want it.

Among other initiatives, Asheville, N.C., has discussed making reparations to Black residents to address the food security and access gaps caused by urban renewal. In Kansas City, members of the Greater KC Food Policy Coalition interviewed hundreds of grocery shoppers who travel by bus and recommended changes to make their trips easier, down to specific signage that now appears at bus stops.

“There are different approaches, different programmatic initiatives, that are happening all over the country – and we’ve seen some successes,” Willingham said. “But I don’t think that there’s been a sort of silver bullet in terms of ‘this is the one thing’ or ‘the combination of things’ that work yet.”

On Buffalo’s East Side, shoppers are trickling back to the Jefferson Avenue Tops. But today, residents want to see far more progress than the expanded produce section the chain advertised at its reopening, said Della Miller, a nutrition educator and longtime community advocate. In the 1990s, Miller volunteered with a group of residents and local church leaders who fought to bring a grocery store to the East Side. Since then, however – disappointed by the store’s small footprint – she’s visited Tops only five times.

Miller said she believes that residents were so relieved to see a supermarket open on Jefferson Avenue that they “would have taken anything” at all.

But the May 14 massacre convinced everyone, said Project Rainfall’s Hubbard-Robinson, that addressing food access gaps on the East Side will take more than one store.

“Alex Wright’s store is really important. The work that Allison DeHonney is doing is really important,” she said. “The mobile markets, the pantries, the community gardens, all of these things – they are, together, the only way we can have an impact on the food apartheid that’s been going on for decades.”

This story was reported and written in collaboration with Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Link to original article: Why improving food access in Buffalo neighborhoods won’t be a ‘one-size-fits-all solution’ | Local News | buffalonews.com

Field & Fork expands access to fresh produce on Buffalo’s East Side

This year’s harvest of fresh, local fruit and vegetables just grew more plentiful for residents of Buffalo’s East Side food desert who qualify for SNAP purchases.

Thanks in part to new state funding from Gov. Kathy Hochul, the Double Up Food Bucks NY program removed the $20 per day cap on its dollar-for-dollar match of SNAP-purchased produce at five East Side vendors through the end of the year.

The unlimited match aims to increase affordable access to fresh, healthy food in the area targeted by the white supremacist mass shooter who killed 10 Black neighbors and wounded three other people May 14 at the Jefferson Avenue Tops market, which serves a predominantly Black neighborhood.

The mass shooting closed the store for two months and put a national spotlight on the concentration of poverty and the lack of fresh, healthy food options on Buffalo’s East Side.

The Tops store reopened July 15 following a complete renovation that includes memorials to the victims, but “We know there are some in the community that are not ready or don’t want to return to the Tops on Jefferson,” said Lisa French, executive director of the Field & Fork Network, which administers the Double Up Food Bucks NY program.

“With shopping options being extremely limited, we hope this move will give residents greater freedom to shop at alternative locations,” French said. “We want to be part of the solution by making it easier for people to access fresh local food and invest in our partners who are working overtime on the East Side.”

Participating partners offering unlimited matching funds in the Double Up Food Bucks program are:

• Clinton Bailey Farmers Market, 1443-1517 Clinton St. Sign up for Double Up cards on full market days, Saturdays through November.

• Urban Fruits & Veggies mobile markets – see the list at buffalogogreen.org/events.

• Buffalo’s Golden Corner, 1715 Jefferson Ave.

• Feedmore WNY Fresh Markets, multiple stops; see feedmorewny.org/programs-services/farm-market.

• African Heritage Food Co-op, 999 Broadway (inside the Broadway Market).

Anyone with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits can participate in the Double Up program. Unlimited match is only offered at the East Side partner locations; all other locations still have the $20 daily cap, said Field & Fork Communications and Partnerships Manager Nichole Borchard. Double Up matching funds do not expire and can be banked for future purchases at the same location where they were earned, she said.

Double Up is a federal, state and privately funded nutrition incentive program for anyone with SNAP/EBT and P-EBT (pandemic assistance that continues through the summer for children/families who qualify for free school lunches).

Field & Fork Network launched the program in New York in 2014, and Buffalo’s East Side was the first community to embrace it, Borchard said. One of the first locations was the Clinton Bailey Farmers Market, a site that continues to see increasing participation from families seeking healthy food options.

In the two weeks since Field & Fork removed the cap for the East Side partners, the Clinton Bailey market has matched $18,000 in Double Up Food Bucks, Borchard said. Last Saturday, “more than 100 people lined up by 8 a.m.” to enroll in the Double Up program there, she said.

Fran Desiderio of Desi’s Produce, which sells a wide variety of fruits and vegetables at Clinton Bailey, said she has been spreading the word about the Double Up cap being lifted there.

“People are very, very appreciative of this,” she said. “On Saturdays when the all the stands are full, we see people from all nationalities and cultures, and we are trying to cater to them by offering things like really hot peppers.”

Besides helping low-income families put more fresh, healthy food on their tables, Double Up also helps local farmers sell more produce and gets more food dollars circulating in the local economy, Borchard said.

The program operates at more than 180 sites across New York including farmers markets, corner stores, mobile markets, farm stands and some grocery stores. On Buffalo’s East Side, the unlimited match will assist food providers who stepped up to offer free meals in the wake of the May 14 hate crime.

“We feel it’s not realistic to ask people to go shopping every day to receive the maximum benefit under the $20 cap,” Borchard said. “Now if they go and spend $200 in one day, they will have earned another $200 on their Double Up card to use at that location.”

Borchard said Field & Fork is also working with Tops to implement the program at the Jefferson Avenue store “in a way that’s not cumbersome for the store and our reporting system.” Rather than offer Double Up cards, the grocery store will be able to print coupons for SNAP purchasers to use the program, she said.

See SNAP income guidelines at otda.ny.gov/programs/snap/.

The Double Up program received its first state funding this year, as a $2 million line item in Gov. Hochul’s 2022 budget . Borchard said Field & Fork expects the U.S. Department of Agriculture will match that to provide $4 million for the program next year.

More help

Two other providers recently announced new initiatives for food assistance:

No Kid Hungry will help families connect with the closest USDA-funded free summer lunch programs for children via text or three-digit call. Parents and caregivers across the state can text “FOOD” or “COMIDA” to 304-304 or call 311 for the most up-to-date hours and locations of nearby meal sites. No registration or documentation is required to receive a free meal.

The Community Action Organization opens a new food pantry at the Resource Council of WNY at 347 E. Ferry St. on Tuesday. In addition to food stocked by FeedMore WNY, the pantry also will provide fresh produce, meat, water and dairy items sourced through local partners including Providence Farms Collective and Fresh Fix, with state Community Services Block Grant funding. The CAO will celebrate the grand opening from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday with free hotdogs and other giveaways.

The pantry will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays. Call 716-881-5150 to register or check on eligibility.

The new pantry is the 10th serving the Jefferson Avenue community. See a list of local food resources at feedmorewny.org/programs-services/find-food/.

Link to original article: Field & Fork expands access to fresh produce on Buffalo’s East Side | Local News | buffalonews.com

Bills Foundation helps launch this healthy food program in Niagara Falls

Jul 22, 2022 at 02:36 PM

Today, Field & Fork Network announced the launch of Double Up Food Bucks NY at the Niagara Falls City Market. The program increases access to local fresh produce, helps families with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) formerly food stamps stretch their food budgets, and invests in New York farmers.

“Niagara Falls is a community that our organization is deeply committed to bringing SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks to the Niagara Falls City Market. This project was several years in the making and the number one priority of the Niagara Falls Local Food Action Plan. We are thankful to our dedicated group of partners, farmers, and residents who helped us get to this point,” said Tom Lowe, Project Director at Field & Fork Network.

How it works:

Double Up Food Bucks is a nutrition incentive program funded by New York State, the USDA’s Nutrition Institute on Food and Agriculture and private foundations that offers individuals and families with SNAP a $1 for $1 match, on all their purchases at the Market, up to $20 per day. Double Up Food Bucks can then be used to purchase local fresh fruits and vegetables. Double Up provides multiple benefits: it’s a win for local farmers selling more produce; a win for low-income families putting more healthy food on their tables; and a win for area businesses as more food dollars circulate in the local economy.

Double Up Food Bucks success is fueled by partners, like the Buffalo Bills, who help bring the program to life in their communities. Without public and private partnerships, the program could not reach the individuals and families who need it most.

Quotes from our partners:

“The Buffalo Bills Foundation is pleased to partner with the Field and Fork Network again this year and support the Double Up Food Bucks program with a $25,000 grant,” said Michelle Roberts, Executive Director of the Buffalo Bills Foundation. “It is our hope that residents in Niagara Falls and throughout WNY that qualify for SNAP benefits register and participate in the Double Up Food Bucks program to stretch their food budget and access healthy, local produce while supporting local farmers.”

“Delivering access to affordable and healthy food has been an ongoing issue for countless communities across New York State, especially in our city centers. By joining forces, Niagara Falls City Market, the Field &Fork Network, and the Buffalo Bills Foundation are helping residents in these communities access an incredible selection of healthy and delicious fruits and vegetables -much of which is grown by farmers right here in Western New York. This is a wonderful collaboration, and I applaud all the partners involved in making this possible,” said Senator Robert Ortt.

“Thanks to the Double Up Food Bucks program, now Niagara Falls residents can receive a dollar-for-dollar match on fruit & vegetable purchases. That means much more healthy food for the family. I would like to thank the Niagara Falls Local Food Action Plan, the City of Niagara Falls, and the City Market for their outstanding teamwork to bring this program to our community.”

– Assemblyman Angelo Morinello

“With the launch of the Double Up Food Bucks program at the Niagara Falls City Market, our families and neighbors will have immediate and affordable access to healthy, fresh food,” said Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino. “This collaboration will be instrumental in ensuring all members of our community have the opportunity to purchase nutritious, locally produced food right in their neighborhood.

“Being able to eat well is a key factor to improving heart and brain health, and we are seeing now more than ever how critical good health is,” said Jason Stulb, executive director of the American Heart Association in the Buffalo/Niagara region. “We’ve been advocating for funding for Double Up Food Bucks at the local and state level so that more people can have access to even more healthy food. We’re proud to work with Field and Fork Network as they implement programs across the state, and are glad to see that the Niagara Falls City Market is now accepting Double Up Food Bucks.”

The Niagara Falls City Market is open to the public from 8 am – 3 pm, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. SNAP & Double Up Food Bucks are accepted 10 am – 2 pm.For a complete list of participating Double Up sites and hours of operation, visit www.doubleupnys.com/locations.

About Double Up Food Bucks

Double Up Food Bucks is a nationwide nutrition incentive model, administered by Field & Fork Network, servicing millions of low-income SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) users with a dollar-for-dollar match to increase affordability and access to fresh healthy foods at farmers markets, CSAs, farm stands, mobile markets, and grocery stores. In New York State, Double Up has contributed to 4.9 million pounds of healthy food sales to over 38,000 customers, at more than 180 sites spanning 29 counties. To learn more about Double Up Food Bucks and a complete list of participating sites, please visit the program website and social media sites, or call 1-800-682-5016. www.doubleupnys.com

Link to original article: Bills Foundation helps launch this healthy food program in Niagara Falls (buffalobills.com)

More Double Up Launching at Niagara Falls City Market In the News:

Double Up Food Bucks program kicks off at Niagara Falls City Market: Double Up Food Bucks program kicks off at Niagara Falls City Market | wgrz.com

Program to help SNAP recipients comes to Niagara Falls: Program to help SNAP recipients comes to Niagara Falls | News 4 Buffalo (wivb.com)

Increasing Access to Fresh Local Produce on Buffalo’s East Side

Increasing Access to Fresh Local Produce on Buffalo’s East Side
Program Offers Unlimited Match on SNAP Purchases & Invests in East Side Partner

Today Field & Fork Network announced, Double Up Food Bucks NY will increase access to fresh local produce on Buffalo’s East Side, with an unlimited $1 for $1 match on all SNAP eligible purchases at participating locations. The program has removed the existing $20 per-day earning cap allowing residents to earn on all their SNAP purchases now through the end of the year.

“We want to be part of the solution by making it easier for people to access fresh local food and invest in our partners who are working overtime on the East Side. We know there are some in the community that are not ready or don’t want to return to the Tops on Jefferson. With shopping options being extremely limited, we hope this move will give residents greater freedom to shop at alternative locations,” said Lisa French Co- Founder and Executive Director of Field & Fork Network.

When Double Up launched in New York in 2014, Buffalo’s East Side was the first community to embrace the program. One of the first locations offering the program was the Clinton Bailey Farmers Market, a site that continues to be one of our strongest partners today. This neighborhood is extremely important to our staff and board; we want to help in any way we can to
improve food access for the residents.

“For many of us, the East Side is not simply another part of Buffalo or an area we hear about in the news. The East Side was once and will always be home for me. I’m fortunate to be a part of an organization that not only prioritizes the needs of our community, but also embarks on intentional action to aid the community. Field & Fork Network’s commitment to helping those in need get that much closer to food security is a wonderful example of Buffalo rallying crucial support for our own, said Stephanie Tisdale, Field & Fork Network Board Chair.

“My family can trace its roots back to the East Side for over the last 70 years when my grandparents chose Riley St to settle down back in the 1930s. My family still owns their home and is an active part of the upkeep of the community. I’m grateful to serve with an organization that prioritizes long term and sustainable programs that pour directly back into the most vulnerable in our community. Field & Fork Network is a sterling example of why Buffalo is and will continue to be branded as the ‘City of Good Neighbors’,” said Stephon Parker, Field & Fork Network Vice Chair.

What is Double Up Food Bucks NY?

A federal, state, and privately funded nutrition incentive program that offers anyone with EBT/P-EBT a $1 for $1 match on their SNAP eligible purchases, up to $20 per day, to purchase local fresh produce.
Double Up provides multiple benefits: it’s a win for local farmers selling more produce; a win for low-income families putting more healthy food on their tables; and a win for area businesses as more food dollars circulate in the local economy.
The program operates at over 180 sites across New York State including grocery stores, corner stores, mobile markets, farmers markets and farm stands.
Since launching in 2014, Double Up has served over 38,000 New Yorkers, across 29 counties, resulting in 4.8Mlbs of healthy food sales.

Where can I earn an unlimited SNAP match?

Clinton Bailey Farmers Market, 1443-1517 Clinton Street
Urban Fruits & Veggies, multiple mobile market stops, 324 Glenwood Ave
Buffalo’s Golden Corner, 1715 Jefferson Avenue
Feedmore WNY Fresh Markets, 2090 Genesee St, multiple mobile stops
African Heritage Food Co-op, 999 Broadway Street, inside the Broadway Market
Double Up Food Bucks is actively seeking new retail partners to operate the program. Participating retail partners must accept SNAP benefits. If you are interested or would like to recommend a business, please email bgertz@fieldandforknetwork.com

About Double Up Food Bucks NY

Double Up Food Bucks NY is a statewide nutrition incentive program, administered by Field & Fork Network that provides SNAP participants with a dollar-for-dollar match to increase affordability and access to fresh healthy foods at farmers markets, farm stands, mobile markets, and grocery stores. In New York State, Double Up has contributed to 4.8 million pounds of healthy food sales to over 38,000 customers, at more than 180 sites spanning 29 counties. To learn more about Double Up Food Bucks and a complete list of participating sites, please visit the program website and social media sites, or call 1-800-682-5016. www.doubleupnys.com | Facebook Instagram

About Field & Fork Network

Field & Fork Network is a NYS nonprofit that connects communities to innovative solutions that foster a sustainable food system. To learn more about our work please visit our website and social media sites at: www.fieldandforknetwork.com | Facebook Instagram Twitter