The non-profit Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands, in partnership with the West Tisbury Farmers Market, will once again distribute $25 vouchers for the purchase of farm-fresh food for low-income senior residents throughout the summer months on Martha’s Vineyard.
Senior and low-income residents throughout the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket counties who are 60 years and over are able to use vouchers to obtain fresh food at local participating locations in their region. On the Vineyard, qualifying seniors can peruse through the fresh produce nestled together in wooden stands at Morning Glory Farm, the only participating farm in the program on the Island. The vouchers were funded by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), while fresh produce and raw honey was made available through the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture (MDAR).
Meg Athearn, operations manager at Morning Glory Farm, said that what motivated the farm’s administrators to be part of this program over ten years ago was their drive to help those in need in the Vineyard community.
“What inspired Morning Glory to get certified was to help out people that have hardly had access to fresh produce. Once you start doing it and see how grateful people are to be able to have fresh produce, you never want to stop doing it,” Athearn told The Times.
And Athearn is no stranger to tackling food insecurity on the Vineyard. She and other farms stepped up when Islanders who are dependent on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) experienced cuts in November that left many without funds for food. Athearn started a free farmer’s market on the porch at the Agricultural Hall last year.
Athearn said the process for voucher holders is simple, and that those who qualify can “shop and use it as cash.”
In order for farms to be able to participate in the distribution of the coupons, they need to go through a qualification process to get certified, and that, Athearn said, is more complicated.
“We have one certification for the farmstand in Edgartown, and then the West Tisbury Farmers Market has a separate certification,” she said.
That’s one reason other farmstands at the market don’t accept the vouchers. “There’s quite a bit of steps and things that [farms] need to offer and provide in order to be able to just accept those coupons,” West Tisbury Farmers Market manager Ethan Buchanan-Valenti said to The Times.
The number of coupons available are limited, meaning that eligible seniors will receive coupons on a first-come, first-serve basis. On the Island, residents are asked to schedule an appointment with the Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands to pick up their coupons.
