Food Access Programs
Part of our mission is to provide our community access to locally and sustainably grown, produced, and harvested foods, regardless of income. To help us meet that goal, we participate in, and operate some of our own, food access programs.
SNAP
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SNAP Match
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WIC FMNP
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Senior FMNP
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Farm to Food Bank
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Alaska TILTH
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Meal at the Market
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Mutual Aid
SNAP ✳︎ SNAP Match ✳︎ WIC FMNP ✳︎ Senior FMNP ✳︎ Farm to Food Bank ✳︎ Alaska TILTH ✳︎ Meal at the Market ✳︎ Mutual Aid
SNAP & SNAP MATCH
As a market, we proudly accept SNAP! And, we’ll double your SNAP dollars by up to $40 at each market. It’s easy – bring your EBT card to the welcome tent, where we’ll swipe it and then give you wooden tokens to spend just like cash at the market. Spend $40 on your SNAP card, and we’ll give you an additional $40 to spend – that’s $80 of spending power. 2026 Bonus: for the 2026 season, we are able to offer an additional $15 to SNAP customers, even if they only spend $1 on their EBT card.
Accepting SNAP at the market is the only way we’d have it. It removes barriers for farmers to accept SNAP. We do all the paperwork, purchase the processing equipment, and all the behind-the-scenes magic, leaving farmers more time to farm.
Our SNAP Match program is made possible through state funding from Alaska Farmers Market Association, an organization devoted to supporting farmers, farmers markets, and food access across the state.
Mutual Aid
Take what you need, give what you can. This is another program we piloted once in 2025. The idea is that no questions asked coupons are available at the welcome tent to spend like cash (don’t worry, we reimburse the vendors), so folks can take what they need. This is not something we’re able to offer on a regular basis, but over the next few years, we hope to make it happen at every market! The idea for both this and the meal at the market came from Southside Community Farmers Market in Fairbanks.
WIC (Women, Infants, & Children) & Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (aka FMNP)
The Matanuska Community Farmers Market is a Farmers Market Nutrition Program certified market, and all of our produce vendors are FMNP approved vendors. Once both WIC & Senior FMNP digital coupons are disbursed, usually in July, recipients can come the market and look for booths with the yellow FMNP signs. These vouchers are for fresh produce only, and seniors may also spend their vouchers on honey.
Farm to Food Bank Programs: LFPA & Alaska Tilth
The Matanuska Community Farmers Market participates in two “farm to food bank” programs. The first, LFPA, or Local Foods Purchasing Assistance Program, is one we operate with federal funding through the Alaska Farmers Market Association. It allows us to purchase fresh, unprocessed produce, meat, seafood, and eggs from vendors and donate directly to local anti-hunger agencies. During the market season, we donate on a weekly basis to the Palmer Food Bank, Mat-Su Food Bank, Alaska Family Services Women’s Shelter, and the Sutton Food Pantry. This program was federally cancelled in 2025, and this is our last year of funding for the program.
Alaska Tilth is a tremendous program run by Alaska Pacific University/Spring Creek Farm. Alaska Tilth is a grant funded program to purchase locally grown and produced foods from growers and producers to donate to local anti-hunger agencies. The market is usually a hub for purchasing and coordination with farmers! We collaborate immensely with the folks running Alaska Tilth, operating our LFPA program in tandem to coordinate pickups, food organization, and drop offs.
Hot Meal at the Market
The Meal at the Market is a program we trialed at our last market in 2025. What is it? A free, hot community meal for all (made with all local produce). We enthusiastically accept donations for those who can and want to donate for the meal, which will help sustain the program in the long run. This takes a huge amount of time, effort, coordination, and resources, so at this time, it’s only something we’re able to do a couple times per season. Funding for these meals is graciously provided through a Mat-Su Health Foundation grant.