Market Match enables healthy food choices for low-income shoppers. 73% of customers surveyed reported that they were able to increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables they were buying each week. 85% reported that they were buying different kinds of fruits and vegetables, and 71% said that their family’s health improved as a result of Market Match.

Market Match supports California’s small and mid-sized farmers, including some of the most innovative and diverse farm operations. 84% of farmers participating in the program report selling more fruits and vegetables, and 37% report expanding their operations with new hires, equipment, acreage, and crops.

Incentives work for California’s rural communities. Market Match supports participants in purchasing healthy foods, and also puts money into the pockets of California’ small- and mid-sized farmers. According to USDA, every $1 of SNAP spending generates up to $1.79 of additional economic activity. That means that in 2017, Market Match created $7.9 million in economic activity, aiding some of California’s most economically disadvantaged communities.

The Ecology Center and many of our national counterparts played a central role in convincing legislators to approve new federal funding in the 2014 Farm Bill for healthy food incentive programs. Between 2015-2017, USDA’s Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) Program awarded grants to 90 organizations totaling over $65.1 million to support incentive programs like Market Match around the nation. This is the result of years of the Ecology Center and the California Market Match Consortium’s legislative efforts to include this funding in the Federal Farm Bill.

In 2015, the Ecology Center, the California Market Match Consortium (CMMC), Roots of Change, and other statewide partners were successful in advocating for the passage of CA Assembly Bill 1321 (Asm. Ting), a bill that created a state matching grant program that could capture Federal FINI funds, build the State Farm-to-Fork office, and stimulate California’s small farming communities. In June of 2016, with the leadership of Asm. Phil Ting and others, the state approved $5 million in state funds to fund this state grant program, and expand on incentive programs like Market Match.

In 2017, the California Department of Food and Agriculture was awarded a $3.9 million FINI grant- the largest of its kind in the nation.

In 2019, the California Department of Food and Agriculture received a $7.1 million grant from the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP – formerly FINI). Combined with matching state funds, this funding will allow Market Match to expand to additional high need areas throughout the state.

Ecology Center joined the National Nutrition Incentive Hub, as a core partner, a Center established by the 2018 Farm Bill to provide training, technical assistance, reporting and evaluation support to GusNIP grantees.

Learn more about the benefits of SNAP Healthy Food Incentive Programs through these resources:

Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program Evaluation by Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, released Jan 2022

• This evaluation conducted by Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition analyzes data from of all of the federally-funded grant programs like Market Match that are in operation across the U.S. provide a view of the impact across various firm types and size in terms of impact for servings of fruits and vegetables among participants compared to a baseline.

Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program Evaluation by Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, released Jan 2021 

The California Nutrition Incentive Program: Participants’ Perceptions and Associations with Produce Purchases, Consumption, and Food Security
Hewawitharana, S.C.; Webb, K.L.; Strochlic, R.; Gosliner, W. Comparison of Fruit and Vegetable Prices between Farmers’ Markets and Supermarkets: Implications for Fruit
and Vegetable Incentive Programs for Food Assistance Program Participants. Nutrients 2022, 14, 1842. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14091842.  Received: 31 March 2022 Accepted: 25 April 2022 Published: 28 April 2022

Economic Contributions of Healthy Food Incentives (2021) Report and Policy Brief featuring economic analysis by Colorado State University

• This Report by Colorado State University looks at the economic contributions of healthy food incentives for SNAP recipients in regional economies comparing the impact from farm-direct based incentives (at sites where farmers sell directly to the consumer like at farmers’ markets) and at grocery retailers.

SNAP Healthy Food Incentives Cluster Evaluation (2012-2013) by Evaluation Firm Community Science

SNAP Healthy Food Incentives Cluster Evaluation (2011) by Evaluation Firm Community Science