The Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), currently provides a SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipient an additional $40-80 monthly regardless of household size to buy vegetables and fruit ONLY from local MA farmers, farm stands, Farmer’s Market, or CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). HIP provides our vulnerable neighbors (households on a fixed income such as veterans, the elderly, and economically disadvantaged families) with local nutritious produce that is too expensive to buy otherwise. Eating healthy reduces the prevalence of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other diet-related diseases and contributes to healthier community outcomes.  However, often, when SNAP recipients shop for food, this often their experience:

"I am an over 70-year-old woman living in Fall River and on Social Security and SNAP. Before HIP funding, I always panicked about what vegetables and fruit I could buy that week. I often would pick up a bag of fruit, look at the price, and put it back. I could only buy what was on sale and got the food I did not particularly want. I live in public housing, and the cost is increasing. It is more important to me now to use the HIP funds.”

HIP also helps our community farmers create an income stream and makes farmers feel good about growing food and feeding the local community. Food is expensive at the local level. However, MA farmers lose five cents for every dollar spent on production, and 2/3 of MA farms operate at a loss. Farmers want to scale up and feed more MA residents need the HIP money to build a greenhouse to grow local food year-around, pay living wages and provide good health insurance to the individuals on the farm, or install a compost facility on the farm that sells the compost to the community.

Contact your State Representative and Senator to urge them to codify H.222/S.104 An Act Relative to an Agricultural Healthy Incentives Program into law, to make this a permanent program in Massachusetts.

To call or email your state legislators, fill out the short form on the right.

Thank you!

The Marion Institute's Southcoast Food Policy Council Team