Cultivate KC Reports Record Double Up Food Bucks Month

Cultivate KC’s Food Access team has had a record year for our Double Up Food Bucks program in 2023. For anyone who’s unfamiliar, Double Up Food Bucks provides matching dollars to EBT/SNAP customers at 18 farmers’ markets and farm stands and 16 grocery stores in the KC metro area. The process at farmers’ markets is simple: SNAP customers withdraw however much they like from their EBT cards, they are given SNAP tokens to spend at vendor booths, and they receive a free match in DUFB tokens up to $25 per day. SNAP tokens have their own rules, but DUFB tokens can only be spent on fresh, local produce. 

Anyone who spends time at farmers’ markets knows that September and October are the best times to visit the market. In addition to cooler temps and the variety of produce available later in the season, many farmers’ markets fill up their calendars with activities and community events during these months. Here in the Food Access team, we see that impact in terms of the number of tokens vendors receive from DUFB customers in exchange for their produce. 

Our previous record for reimbursing these DUFB tokens was from October 2021, when our farmers’ markets and farm stands reported a grand total of $33,217.00 in DUFB tokens spent by customers at these markets. That’s a huge positive impact for local growers that arrives exactly when we expect it to: toward the end of the season. 

This past July, we were thrilled to see our markets report $33,584.00 in DUFB activity at vendor booths. That’s slightly more than the activity from October 2021, but it’s nearly $10,000.00 more than the activity from the previous July. Does this mean we’ll break new records in September and October this year? We won’t know for sure until we get there, but the Food Access team is eager to find out. It means so much to us to help customers get more fresh, local produce, and also to put more money in the pockets of the hardworking farmers here in the KC metro area. 

Cultivate KC’s support of the Double Up Food Bucks program is in collaboration with the Mid-America Regional Council. We partner with MARC and six other organizations to provide Double Up Food Bucks at farmers’ markets, farm stands, and grocery stores all across Kansas and Missouri. You can find out more information at www.doubleupheartland.org. 

written by Eli O’Sullivan Kurtz, Food Access Farmers Market Specialist