Photo: The red tokens representing the what the Belmont Farmers’ Market matches in federal SNAP funding
The rain had already begun falling on the final day of this season’s Belmont Farmers’ Market on Thursday, Oct. 30. The dank, wet afternoon could have been the reason for the much smaller numbers of shoppers arriving at the market’s long-time home in the back of the Claflin Municipal Parking Lot in Belmont Center.
But the conditions didn’t deter a steady stream of patrons coming to the Market Manager’s tent where red, white, and blue tokens – which resemble poker chips – were being handed out. Soon those markers would be used at the more than a dozen vendors waiting in the rain.
The red plastic vouchers represent he federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – formally known as food stamps – provides a boost in the earning power of each household’s food purchases. Under the BFM’s food assistance program, every week SNAP recipients can have their benefits matched up to an extra $25 to purchase any food items under the program’s guidelines.
“We have an average of almost 60 SNAP transactions every week. And last year, we had almost 300 separate households, families, individuals that came in to get benefits,” said Hal Shubin, the Farmers’ Market manager.
In addition, under the Massachusetts Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), SNAP recipients receive $40 of free produce every month. And the Belmont Food Collabrative created HIP Plus, its own program – those are the blue tokens – which gives anybody who wants it $20 a month to buy fresh food from any vendor.
The programs makes a difference for many patrons who come to the market from late spring to the end of October, said Shubin. “We have had people tell us that they can only eat well because of the match, because they’re getting that much extra money.”
A young man carrying his young daughter in his arms so her shoes wouldn’t get soaked said he hadn’t been to the market “lately” but want to come before the market closed for the season and due to the news he heard over the past few weeks.
“She really likes apples,” he said. “And I wanted to use the [program] before it’s gone,” he said.
The news he heard was as dreary as the weather. Due to a stalemate on funding a national budget, the federal government shut down that began Oct. 1 resulte in the funding for SNAP run out on Nov. 1. The program is used by more than 20 million households representing 412 million people across the country. A typical monthly SNAP payment is approximatley $188 per person, or about $332 per household.
And that number includes Belmontians, said Shubin. The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance reported in September that, there are almost 700 households in Belmont that receive SNAP benefits, about seven percent of the town’s households.
“That’s about 1,000, 1,100 individuals in those households,” said Shubin, pointing out that while many are older residents, the number includes those who work full-time, new citizens, and children, which makes up nearly 40 percent of recipients nationwide.
“People think Belmont is very well-to-do town. It’s really more of a mix of people than that, and there are people who need help with putting food on the table. And again, not just food, but this is good food that we have here,” said Shubin.
And demand for food assistance is only growing. When the Farmers Market started the SNAP match program in 2011, it matched $1,000 for the five month season. In 2025 it will approach $28,000 “and we haven’t gone through this last day yet. So the need has been going up,” said Shubin.
The BFM’s SNAP match programs helps people in Belmont and surrounding communities. “We had one woman that used to come from Littleton, because we’ve got one of the very best SNAP matches of any Farmers Market around,” said Shubin.
SNAP recipients are not just buying food, “they’re supporting all of these vendors,” said Hal pointing to the tents pitched in the lower parking lot. “I don’t know if it brings the vendors [to the Farmers Market], but it helps to keep them here.”
“I was at [a SNAP] rally at the Massachusetts State House a couple days ago, and one of the farmers which used to in Belmont told how important it was for his business to receive SNAP dollars and supporting the farmers.” With the pressure of commercial and residential real estate development, “all the farms could turn into condo developments or shopping centers. Supporting the farms and the farmers keeps the open space as well, and they employ people. So [the SNAP program] goes really far,” said Shubin.
While a pair of federal judges on Oct. 31 ruled the federal government must use reserve funding to keep the SNAP program running, President Trump has frozen SNAP benefits for the Nov. 1 release date, impacting all who receive SNAP benefits.
A long-time member of the Belmont Food Cooperative, the Market’s parent organization, and market manager, Shubin said while he doesn’t have experience in the federal budget – he’s a software engineer by trade – he has a hard time getting his head around how the country has come to this point.
“We’re non-partisan here, so I’m not going to get into any details. But I can’t tell you why anybody thinks that it’s good to make people be hungry. It’s not even balancing the budget,” he said.
“Where do people go? If they had SNAP benefits and they’ll lose it for, maybe, I don’t know, how long? We don’t know when it’s going to come back. Where do they go? What do you tell people?” said Shubin.
The BFM is attempting to do its part. As the Nov. 1 deadline approached, the BFM created a four-page handout of food pantries, community fridges, meals programs, Meals on Wheels, even a food pantry for pets. It also lists local Winter Farmers Markets that have SNAP and HIP benefits (although the SNAP match doesn’t matter that much until there is a resolution). Brookline’s Allendale Farm will be conducting a free Farmers Market in Jamaica Plain for a couple of Thursdays in November, and looking for other people to join them, said Shubin.
“So folks are starting to help, but you can’t make up for this shortfall,” he said.
