Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows a recipient to authorize transfer of their government benefits from a Federal account to a retailer account to pay for products received and helps low-income families and individuals to buy nutritious food.
Tomahawk Main Street is proud to announce a $1,000 grant received from Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital to help promote the use of EBT funds at the downtown Farmer’s Market in Tomahawk.
“This is exciting news for those individuals wanting to buy local, fresh produce and meats that normally wouldn’t have the funds to do so,” said Aimee Dickrell, Tomahawk Main Street Executive Director. “Providing everyone the same opportunity to bring home healthy food from local growers is one of the main focuses of our downtown farmer’s market. Being able to now match the EBT amount spent by an individual to encourage the use of their funds at our market is amazing.”
The funding is being used to cover the annual cost of the card machine and processing fees which averages almost $400, advertising and promotion costs along with a matching funds amount.
“Nutrition has been identified as one of the top three needs in Lincoln County as part of our Community Health Needs Assessment,” said Hope Williams, RDN, CDE, CLS, Coordinator of Community Health Improvement for Ascension. “We have successfully supported farmers markets in other communities in Wisconsin with similar programs and pleased to expand access to the downtown farmers market in Tomahawk.”
Each year the downtown Farmer’s Market has been working on ways to bring more people to the market. It hosts a variety of vendors selling seasonal fruits and vegetables, eggs, meats, baked goods, organic smoothies and much more.
The matching funds provided by Ascension Sacred Heart are only for EBT food purchases with a minimum of $4 purchased and in increments of $2 thereafter.
The market is held every Tuesday on N. 3rd Street from 9 a.m. till 1 p.m. and will start matching funds at the July 17 market.
Matching funds will continue until the estimated $500 available is used. Updates will be available on remaining funds after each market at the Tomahawk Main Street office.
For more information, please contact Aimee Dickrell, Executive Director at Tomahawk Main Street at 715-453-1090.