City Council Speaker Christine Quinn visited the Poe Park Greenmarket to spread the word about the growing number of farmers markets that accept food stamps and EBT cards.
With almost $300,000 of additional funding this year from the City Council, many more New Yorkers will be able to buy fresh produce from local farms at their neighborhood Greenmarkets. Markets are now equipped with wireless scanners where shoppers swipe their EBT cards in exchange for wooden tokens they can then spend at any stand.
Quinn praised the program as a way to bring fresh, nutritious produce to the communities that need it the most.
The Department of Health will also distribute 15,000 "Health Bucks" this summer, $2 coupons accepted at farmers markets throughout the Bronx. Shoppers will receive one Health Buck for every $5 spent using food stamps.
Since the Poe Park market started providing the tokens last year, the amount of food stamps spent at the market has grown to over $500 a day, a Greenmarket spokesman said.
Poe Park is one of a handful of Greenmarkets in the Bronx and is open Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.