Jamestown Farmers Market Receives Grant To Help Extend Season, Improve Outreach

The Jamestown Farmers Market has received a grant that will help them extend their season.

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, which oversees the Market, received $49,950 through New York State’s Farmers’ Market Resiliency Grant Program.

The funding will go toward creating a year-round marketing plan and extend the farmers’ market season, increase off-season production/availability, improve outreach, and create an initiative to improve green infrastructure with mobile planters.

This announcement by the state follows Governor Kathy Hochul’s warning to New Yorkers regarding the impact of federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program on New York’s agricultural industries and on the State’s vulnerable families. Over 400,000 transactions were made by New Yorkers using their SNAP benefits to purchase fresh food at farmers’ markets in 2024 through the State’s FreshConnect Program, resulting in over $10 million in revenue for participating farmers.

Funding was awarded to 25 farmers’ market organizations across New York State to help strengthen their markets and make local products more accessible to consumers by building out infrastructure, including booths, signage, and electronic infrastructure like website development, including online sales capabilities. This third round of funding is awarding the greatest number of projects to date, with an increase of 19 projects over the second round of the program.

Hochul said funding programs for farmers’ markets is even more critical now than ever, particularly as New York State faces federal funding cuts to SNAP programs across the board.

She said that slashing families’ grocery budgets would reduce revenue for thousands of businesses, with ripple effects throughout the food supply chain. Hochul added that if states are forced to end their SNAP programs, in addition to increasing hunger and poverty, grocery stores in rural areas will struggle to stay open, people in agriculture and the food industry will lose jobs, and State and local economies will suffer:

• Lost SNAP sales and matching dollars will have a critical impact on local economies and the more than 18,000 retailers that accept SNAP in New York State, including grocery stores, local shops and more than 400 SNAP-authorized local farmers’ markets and farm stands that can be found in every county in New York selling New York agricultural products to the people in their local community.
• SNAP sales in the farming community have dramatically increased since 2019, providing New York consumers access to healthy, farm fresh foods and providing our farm communities additional economic development dollars.
• As the State matches SNAP dollars spent at farm markets through the FreshConnect Fresh2You program, the hit to farms of decreased SNAP funding is doubled.

According to a report from the Office of the State Comptroller, between 2019 and 2021, approximately 10 percent of New Yorkers, or approximately 800,000 households, experienced food insecurity and struggled with food affordability.

To learn more about programs and initiatives that help low-income families, seniors, and Veterans access fresh, healthy food at participating markets, visit https://agriculture.ny.gov/farmersmarkets