Healthy food, affordable prices, a strong community

In recent years, Massachusetts has tried to marry its promotion of local agriculture with its program for feeding the poor. It allows people to use their food stamp debit cards to buy groceries at farmers markets and similar outlets for locally grown food.

And more recently, the state Legislature has funded a program that reimburses some of that food stamp money spent on local food, allowing recipients of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to stretch their benefit on healthy food. The Healthy Incentives Program obviously also benefits local farmers, who get new customers.

The state-sponsored program has been very popular among sellers and buyers since it was launched last year. For the past year, 35,000 households in Massachusetts have received reimbursement for healthy food purchases from local sources through HIP.

In Orange in particular, it’s been a big hit. Quabbin Harvest Food Co-op, a major vendor of locally grown produce, has been the number-one HIP enroller of SNAP recipients in the state, helping 120 low-income households to buy fresh fruit and vegetables each month. Quabbin Harvest, a nine-year-old co-op that now operates out of a storefront on North Main Street, isn’t resting on its laurels. This past weekend, the cooperative held an information session for more people who might be interested in signing up for HIP.

Signing people up for the Healthy Incentives Program falls right within the cooperative’s mission of providing “healthy food at an affordable price while building community, supporting local agriculture and respecting the environment,” according Quabbin Harvest Team Coordinator Julie Davis.

Lifetime memberships at the cooperative cost $120, but people who are enrolled in SNAP may obtain memberships for less.

“Thanks to donations from supporters, Quabbin Harvest is also able to offer sponsored co-op memberships to SNAP-eligible customers,” Davis said. Membership brings a discount on Member Appreciation Days, a shopper reward card, discounts from Orange Oil and other benefits.

According to Davis, Quabbin Harvest offers a range of affordably priced staple foods through its “Basics” program. As a “local source,” people who sign up for the Healthy Incentives Program will receive 100 percent reimbursements for produce purchased at Quabbin Harvest up to a ceiling set by household size.

Households with one or two people have $40 monthly limit, three to five people have a $60 limit and more than six people have an $80 limit. Healthy Incentives Program retailers include farm stands, farmers markets, mobile markets and community supported agriculture farm share programs, like the one Quabbin Harvest also offers.

If in fact, the non-profit’s mission is to provide healthy food at an affordable price, while building community, supporting local agriculture and respecting the natural environment, its participation in HIP checks all the boxes — and helps lots of people in the process.

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