What is SNAP?
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps put healthy food within reach for those in need.
42 million Americans receive SNAP benefits. In North Carolina, 1.6 million households feed their families with the help of SNAP benefits. That’s twelve percent of our neighbors statewide.
86 percent of all SNAP benefits go to households that include a child, elderly person, or person with disabilities. One third of those households include at least one working family member. The average household allotment for NC is $231 for the month.
In July of 2024, 74,910 North Carolina families applied for new SNAP benefits. That number is only exceeded in April of 2020 when 91,000 new applications came in.
We have seen unprecedented food price inflation in 2024 at grocery stores. Nationwide, fifty percent of SNAP benefits are being spent at superstores like Walmart. Many people of all economic situations are buying food coming from long distances, even “fresh” foods. The food is not fresh, it’s often chemically coerced into ripening (or not) during shipping. With factory farms and industrial slaughterhouses, complex intercontinental shipping routes, and round-the-clock grocery warehouses and stores throughout our cities – there is nothing sustainable happening in that system.
People are looking for other options and farmers markets can provide that alternative.
The bottom line: A farmers market SNAP matching program helps draw customers whose budget has them buying fake-fresh or processed foods from Walmart or Dollar General, or relying on food banks. And that’s a win for all of us.
NC Families applied for SNAP in July 2024
%
of SNAP benefits go to households with a child, elderly person, or person with disabilities
My daughter is autistic-nonverbal. We really didn’t have a lot of solutions for her, other than the typical therapies. And I came across an article that said putting them of a gluten-free diet would change a lot for them. So it turns out she actually had a gluten intolerance, as well. So this changed – literally – everything for our family. She’s about to turn 9. And at 8 years old, she still wasn’t potty-trained. And she’d really regressed a lot. But one month into the gluten-free diet, she started to be fully potty-trained. She started speaking more. A lot of that was due to the market. There are a lot of gluten-free vendors here. And I could get a ton of products. It was really, really helpful to our family.
I found an ad for the Corner Market and the SNAP doubling on one of my groups on Facebook, and I thought I would come try it out. And when I got here, I fell in love – not only with the products, but with the people. The people make me feel so welcome, and we see the same faces every week. People really get to know you, and not the fact that you’re just “some money.” And they really try to bring in anything they can to try to help you.
The ability to double SNAP/EBT at the Corner Market is incredible. Especially because our EBT normally runs out, on a gluten-free diet. Just one trip to the store could cost upwards of $100 just for my daughter’s stuff. On top of that, there’s always stuff that’s missing. And she’s very consistent with what she wants, and they’re not the cheapest things. So Green4Greens has literally saved us for months over.
Your donation feeds families and builds a vibrant local food system.
All donations are matched by the USDA to help families buy healthy food, and every cent goes on to pay our local food producers to keep on growing!
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