Andrea Talley, worker owner at Mandela Grocery Co-op in West Oakland and partner with Market Match (2024)
Ecology Center is proud to announce our recent partnership and the start of Market Match at our first grocery store location in 2023 – Mandela Grocery Co-op in West Oakland! This means that all CA-grown produce is 50% off for shoppers spending their CalFresh EBT benefits. Market Match is a statewide program that is funded by a state and federal grant that supports small farmers and also makes fresh CA-grown produce more affordable to SNAP or CalFresh recipients in California. Market Match is led by the Ecology Center and operated at over 270 farmers’ market locations.
Ecology Center chose to launch at this grocery store because we are designing the Market Match program to serve customers as well as our planet. Mandela Grocery Co-op prioritizes sourcing from small and mid-sized farmers and also serves a community that has been impacted by institutionalized racism and consequently very limited grocery options in the area. We know that small and mid-scale farmers (like the farms that Mandela Grocery sources their produce from and the farmers that sell at Berkeley farmers’ markets) are using cultivation practices that are good for the soil, climate, biodiversity, and our collective future.
These cultivation practices include limiting heavy tillage, using crop rotation, and planting a diversity of crops which keeps insect populations and the base of our food chain intact and preserves the soil structure and retains the soil’s capacity for water retention and drainage that is vital in times of low water as well as rainstorms and floods. A recent study published in the academic journal Nature in April 2024 put together the research from 24 studies in 11 countries and found that combining more than one diversification agricultural practice had added benefits not only for the ecosystem, crop yields, but also for the human environment– an antidote to the mono-culture farming that threatens our future on the planet. While the researchers recognize the underlying structural economic interests that involve the U.S. dumping exports on other countries’ agricultural economies and rising land rents affecting agriculture, the researchers hope that changes in policy choices will regulate mono-culture farming and incentivize diversification practices that small farmers use.
Mandela Grocery is joining the Market Match consortium that includes many other organizations that operate Market Match across the state. In 2023, this location served over 3,800 Market Match visits and sold $66,000 worth of CA-grown produce half off with the Market Match program. We encourage you to visit Mandela Grocery Co-op at their location right across from the West Oakland BART station on 7th.
Signage at Mandela Grocery Co-op explains how Market Match works as a 50% off discount on CA-grown fresh produce.
View of the produce fridge at Mandela Grocery showing a variety of produce offerings.
We also want to highlight a few sites in the East Bay that are making making fresh food from small farmers more affordable and accessible in a region where the cost of living continues to rise and outpace wages for many of our community.
We also partner with Urban Village Farmers’ Market Association which is the operator of the Old Oakland Farmers’ Market on Friday mornings which is the location on Broadway and 9th Street in Downtown Oakland. This market features around 24 small and mid-sized produce farmers and serves the second highest number of Market Match shopper transactions in the state with 4,000 transactions per month. Urban Village Farmers’ Market Association has made innovations to better serve their customers including adding on multiple CalFresh EBT terminals and increasing staffing. While many office workers have not returned to office in the downtown of Oakland, this market is still a bustling and vital place where many community members buy their fresh produce every week.
Yang Family Farm, farm vendor at Urban Village Farmers’ Market in Old Oakland
Urban Village Old Oakland Farmers’ Market, View of produce stall and customers shopping. Photo Credit: Urban Village Farmers’ Market Association
And finally, Ecology Center’s own three Berkeley Farmers’ Markets located in Downtown Berkeley on Saturday mornings, North Berkeley on Thursday afternoons and in South Berkeley on Tuesday afternoons are having a big impact in our own community.
Berkeley farmers’ market shoppers recently shared what Market Match means to them:
- At 78 years old, I am still working as a self-employed person. I hope to be able to work until 85. If not, it is going to be very difficult for me to pay my rent, let alone buy food. The Market Match is essential for me.
Another shopper shared,
Market Match helps me to cook with healthy and local ingredients on a limited budget. It has introduced many low-income people and families to the farmers market, making it more accessible to all. I had never been able to afford to shop at the farmers market before Market Match and if it gets cut, I likely will not be able to continue going there.
In 2023, Berkeley shoppers spent $311,553 of their CalFresh and Market Match incentives at the North Berkeley, South Berkeley and Downtown Berkeley Farmers’ Markets in over 10,000 customer transactions. This represented a 255% increase in total dollars spent and 174% increase in customers served compared to 2019. We estimate that this program led to the purchase of about 623,000 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables. See this impact report for the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets by clicking here.
We believe this is an important resource to our community to ensure that our farmers’ markets really are for everyone.
Nestor Diaz of Golden Rule farm, vendor at Berkeley Farmers’ Markets (Downtown and North Berkeley)
Downtown Berkeley Farmers’ Market operated by Ecology Center, view of the market vendor stalls and information booth where customers can use their CalFresh EBT benefits to spend with vendors at the market.
Market Match is a program of the Ecology Center and is funded in part through the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture.
