Joel Chudnow unloads his grocery haul at the picnic tables at Sweetwater Organic Community Farm.
“Oh gee whiz, look at this,” he said. “Kale!”
One by one, he reviews his purchases: Three varieties of kale, sweet bell peppers, salad mix and green scallions.
All of the produce was harvested a couple hours ago on-site. It’s the Sunday morning market at the urban farm that’s in a neighborhood just west of Tampa.
Chudnow purchased the farm-fresh produce with a Florida program called Fresh Access Bucks.
It gives him extra money to spend on locally grown fruits and vegetables on top of the federal grocery assistance he receives through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
But as Congress considers hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to SNAP, the program could be in jeopardy.
How it works
Fresh Access Bucks is a statewide program funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that increases the purchasing power of SNAP recipients to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, produce stands and community grocery stores, according to the website.
The way to keep track of it all? Silver and green tokens.
Silver tokens represent regular SNAP-eligible purchases, and green tokens are good for local fruits, vegetables, herbs and seeds.
It’s a dollar-for-dollar match. Customers, like Chudnow, who spend a dollar on SNAP at a participating fresh market get another dollar to spend on produce.
“It’s a win for the farm, for people living in a food desert, [for] people that value the high quality of organics, as I do. It’s really a blessing. It’s a treasure,” Chudnow said.
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Over 400 Florida farmers in 33 counties are benefitting from the program, according to recent survey data from Feeding Florida. In 2023, customers on grocery assistance bought nearly $600,000 in produce from Florida farmers with Fresh Access Bucks.
When SNAP recipients spend their tokens on fresh produce, growers can redeem them for money.
The state writes those checks, but the money ultimately comes from the federal government.
Robin Safley, CEO of Feeding Florida, said there’s been some concern over the future funding of food programs.
Federal funding is at risk
Federal lawmakers have proposed steep cuts to many government programs amid the ongoing budget reconciliation process. Congress is aiming to finalize the spending bill by Memorial Day.
Last month, the House passed its version of a budget that would cut at least $230 billion from SNAP. Ideas to reach the spending target proposed by House Republicans include narrowing eligibility for the benefits, expanding existing work requirements and restricting which food purchases are allowed.
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Safley said cuts to SNAP could weaken the effectiveness of Florida’s Fresh Access Bucks.
“A reduction in SNAP benefits … would then reduce the economic lever that individuals can use in the retail space. They’ll just have less to spend,” she said. “So, that’s one thing that we have to pay attention to.”
In other words, if SNAP benefits are reduced, then Floridians like Chudnow will have less grocery dollars to spend — or available to match through Fresh Access Bucks.
“The impact on me would be significant. I will buy less and eat less, and I will be eating the best quality, high-octane food that I can purchase with my limited physical dollars, if not SNAP.”Joel Chudnow, SNAP recipient
The good news is that the federal funding for the match program itself, which comes from the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program, or GusNIP, has not been a target of spending cuts yet, Safley said.
The federal incentive program funds projects, like Florida’s Fresh Access Bucks, in all 50 states. It has enjoyed bipartisan support since it was enacted in 2015.
The idea behind the legislation was to encourage SNAP participants to buy healthier foods and champion local growers and community grocery stores.
The impact on local economy
It’s been working for Kelli Casto so far.
She recently opened a neighborhood produce store in South St. Petersburg’s Community Redevelopment Area. It operates under Saving Our Seniors, a nonprofit that Casto founded a decade ago.
“I wanted to come to a community that is kind of underserved with accessibility to affordable [food] options,” she said. “I got this idea nine weeks ago, and we’ve been open for four weeks.”
The store accepts grocery assistance in the form of Medicare Advantage, SNAP and Fresh Access Bucks.
Casto said this business model supports the store’s mission to reduce barriers to healthy foods for residents who are up against rising grocery prices.
A recent study by SmartAsset found that the Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater metro area saw the second-highest spike in food costs across the country since March 2024.
“Our produce and everything is different because we have a greater mission … it’s not like we’re raising money to go on a nice vacation. We’re raising money to put it back into our community,” Casto said.
Your Neighborhood Produce is one of around 15,000 retailers in Florida that could be impacted by SNAP cuts, according to research by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Gina Plata-Nino, a deputy director at the Food Research and Action Center, said SNAP brought in more than $6.5 billion to Florida’s economy last year.
That loss in revenue would hurt the bottom line for small and large retailers, but the consequences would be especially pronounced for neighborhood produce stores and farmers’ markets, like at Sweetwater Farm, where about one in five customers pays with SNAP dollars.
“We're talking small grocers, and they operate a very tight margin. They're not making millions of dollars. They are the whole source of food for the community, and when they close, it means more food insecurity,” Plata-Nino said.
As the Sunday market winds down at Sweetwater Farm, Joel Chudnow thinks about what’s at stake for him if his grocery assistance is cut or reduced.
“The impact on me would be significant,” he said. “I will buy less and eat less, and I will be eating the best quality, high-octane food that I can purchase with my limited physical dollars, if not SNAP.”
Gabriella Paul covers the stories of people living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region for WUSF. She's also a Report for America corps member. Here’s how you can share your story with her.
