A program that helps people who receive federal food assistance access healthy foods is expanding amid looming cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, starting Nov. 1.
The Fair Food Network’s Double Up Food Bucks program matches fresh produce purchases made by food assistance dollars, up to $20. That cap is lifted until the end of the year to allow recipients to build savings.
“We lifted the lifted the earning limit so however much SNAP dollars folks have available that they spend on fruits and vegetables at a participating location, they will earn in Double Up Food Bucks, and then they can use that going into November,” said Holly Parker, the chief strategy and program officer for the Fair Food Network.
Additionally, dollars will no longer expire after 90 days during this timeframe. Frozen fruits and vegetables are now eligible for the program, too.
Recipients can apply for a $40 voucher while supplies last. The voucher – called Double Up Bonus Bucks – doesn’t require a match from SNAP.
Parker said the voucher is being offered to help families because once they run out of SNAP dollars, they won’t be able to earn more Double Up Food Bucks. The $40 will stretch funds longer.
Parker said the state and the program’s donors are stepping up funding during the federal shutdown.
“While we expect that the pause will be temporary, the families and individuals who rely on SNAP to put food on the table will be left during that time without the critical food support that they need,” she said. “And it's right as we're entering the colder months and the holiday season.”
Disruptions to federal food assistance harms more than the more than 1.4 million people who receive benefits, Parker said. It hurts local communities.
“It's also an economic blow to all the grocery stores, farmers, food retailers and other food markets, large and small, throughout our communities,” Parker said. “So, this pause in SNAP has ripple effects throughout our entire state.”
Nearly 10,000 Michigan retailers accepted SNAP in 2023, and shoppers redeemed more than $3.6 million in benefits that year, according to Tim Boring, the director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
In 2024, those benefits used in Michigan farmers markets added up to more than $1.5 million. Boring said Double Up Food Bucks earned shoppers an extra $860,000 to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables.
“That’s creating total buying power that reaches nearly $2.4 million,” Boring said. “Through that lens, SNAP supports farmers markets, the grocery stores and their success. Then, in turn, that supports jobs and has a greater impact on our local economies.”
Boring said there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future of federal food assistance distributions. That is impacting farmers.
“In a place like Michigan that grows a lot of the products that feed families, there’s certainly concern at a farm level, especially with smaller producers that are really locked into these local food systems here, about what demand for their products might be,” he said.
The department and Fair Food Network will continue working together to make programs like Double Up Food Bucks more flexible, Boring said. But federal funding cuts to food assistance are affecting a lot of people.
"These are massive obligations here, and the state of Michigan is going to be in a tough position here, certainly to backfill all of this immediate need,” Boring said.
Eleven grocery stores and farmers markets accept Double Up Food Bucks across Ingham, Eaton, Clinton and Jackson counties. Those are listed below:
- Downtown Dewitt Farmers Market
- Bath Farmers Market
- Farmers Market at the Capitol
- Great Giant – Lansing
- South Lansing Farmers Market
- Allen Farmers Market
- East Lansing Farmers Market
- Meridian Township Farmers Market
- Williamston Farm and Artisan Market
- Holt Farmers Market
- Grand River Farmers Market
