Berkeley Farmers’ Markets

While some grocery stores do carry a small number of local and organic products, most cannot equal Farmers’ Markets in the variety and quality of local foods, let alone guarantee farmers a fair price. In 2025, American farmers received only 15.9 cents of every dollar Americans spent on food. At farmers’ markets, farmers head home with upwards of 90 cents on the dollar. Shopping at a farmers’ market is also a unique experience where farmers and shoppers get to know each other, do business, and help one another.  Meeting friends and neighbors at the farmers’ market while shopping and supporting local businesses is just fun. When was the last time you told your friends to meet you in the aisle of a grocery store?

A Certified Farmers’ Market (CFM) is a “point of sale” location for California agricultural products. CFMs are usually set up on a weekly basis for California farmers and ranchers (“producers”) to gather together and sell their agricultural products directly to the public. A CFM may only be operated by a local government, a certified producer, or a non-profit organization. CFMs must be authorized by the county agricultural commissioner and abide by current legislation and regulations. Only producers certified by the county agriculture commissioner may sell at a CFM and must display their Certified Producer Certificate, and a sign with language akin to “We Grow What We Sell.” The re-sale of agricultural products at a CFM is prohibited. Being a CFM opens up the opportunity to take advantage of the free POS device program through the California Department of Social Services, as well as free resources from the Ecology Center when setting up an EBT program. It also allows you to be listed on the Ecology Center’s Farmers’ Market Finder.

Thank you! There are a lot of ways you can get involved with the Market Match program. Ask at your market’s information booth if they need volunteers. Or contact us to provide a testimony or quote.

Recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as CalFresh in California, are no longer issued paper food stamps. Instead, they are issued an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card where recipients can access their food benefits electronically by swiping their card at the point of sale. In order to accept CalFresh EBT cards, farmers’ markets typically establish a central Point of Sale (POS) model, allowing the market to sell EBT scrip to customers at a central point in the market. The customer then spends their EBT scrip with any eligible food producer in the market and the market manager later redeems the scrip for cash or in place of a stall fee. This system requires the farmers’ market manager or operator to become authorized as a SNAP retailer by Federal Nutrition Services (FNS) USDA, and to implement and promote the EBT program.

The central Point of Sale (POS) and scrip system allows all eligible food vendors in a multi-vendor farmers’ market to sell eligible food products to CalFresh EBT recipients without each vendor needing individual authorization by the USDA Food & Nutrition Service (FNS). The central POS device is usually located at a staffed market information table or carried by an easily identifiable market staff person. Market signage should direct EBT cardholders to the POS device. The staff person asks the customer how much of her food benefits she would like to transfer to scrip, swipes the card, and issues scrip in the amount requested. The customer uses the scrip with vendors in the market to purchase eligible food products. At the end of the market day, vendors trade the scrip for cash, check, or a receipt for future payment from the market operator. The customer can return unused scrip for credit on her EBT card, or hold it for later use.

CalFresh serves over 4 million clients with nearly $8 billion in federal nutrition benefits. When you add EBT access to your market, you open this $8 billion market to your farmers.