Days away from the opening of the weekly Coastside Farmers’ Market Farmers Market, founder Erin Tormey is working to get private funding to up the ante of the markets. The reason? This is the last time Market Match, a 15 year-old program funded by the California Nutrition Incentive Program, also known as the CNIP by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, will be able to fund CalFresh users to have their funds matched throughout the 2024 Coastside Farmers’ Market season unless there’s funding for it.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting $33.2 million dollars from the three-year $35 million CNIP program in his January 2024 budget proposal, which would end Market Match that supports California farmers and hungry Californians.
Tormey says that the markets are going to be okay this year but the food system is very fragile. She’s trying to stay positive through the news. Last week Tormey, a bunch of other directors of regional farmers markets, a Market Match user and a farmer joined the Save Market Match Coalition to rally at the state Capitol building in support of CNIP.
“[The CNIP] got cut in the May revision, we got it put back in and it gave us all time and the state of California time to apply for additional federal funding to get an extra year,” said Tormey. “There’s been all kinds of challenges for every organization within the state because of the delay in tax filings as a result of all the disasters that happened last winter.”
A press release by the Save the Market Match Coalition states that CNIP and the Market Match have had bipartisan support and as a program addressed the interest of both urban and rural Californian communities.
“The loss of this essential safety net program would be devastating to low-income California households and California’s small farms,” said the press release.
As for local support, Tormey gives thanks to the office of state Sen. Josh Becker for recognizing the big picture of valuing the markets and the importance of Market Match since the pilot program debuted in the Bay Area.
The Coastside Markets does about $20,000 thousand dollars every year in matches. When a Coastside resident brings in $20, the market turns that into 40 dollars so the resident gets to feed their family while also supporting local farmers.
“There's always a way to make more money but there’s no way to make up for time,” said Tormey.
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