Market Match

Market Match is California’s healthy food incentive program that matches customers’ CalFresh benefits at farmers’ markets across the state.

About the program

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About the program

Doubling food dollars and strengthening local farms.

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Market Match is California’s nationally recognized nutrition incentive program that makes healthy food more affordable for people using CalFresh (SNAP). At participating farmers’ markets, shoppers receive matching funds to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables grown by California farmers, doubling their buying power and increasing access to fresh, nutritious food.

Operated by the Ecology Center, Market Match is offered at 269 sites in partnership with over 60 community-based organizations and farmers’ market operators, keeping food dollars circulating locally. The program improves health outcomes, reduces long-term healthcare costs, and advances food and climate equity by directing resources to communities that face the greatest economic barriers and environmental burdens.

The Market Match program was founded in 2009 by Ecology Center’s partner, Roots of Change (ROC). The first primary funder was the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

The program began with just a handful of partners — market operators and community-based organizations spread out across the state. ROC asked these leaders to design the SNAP healthy food incentive program that best fit both their community needs and their organization’s capacity. This was the beginning of what is now a thriving community of practice: the California Market Match Consortium (CMMC).

In late 2012, Roots of Change partnered with Ecology Center to transition oversight and leadership of the CMMC and its convening. Ecology Center had been a Consortium member since 2011 and came to the table with 25 years experience operating farmers’ markets, over ten years assisting markets with establishing CalFresh EBT access, and providing leadership for the newly formed California Alliance of Farmers’ Markets.

In 2015, the Ecology Center received one of the USDA’s first-ever Gus Schumacher Nutrition Program (GusNIP) Grants (formerly the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) Grant Program). In 2017, the California Nutrition Incentive Program was established by Assembly Bill 1321, authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting. Ecology Center, Roots of Change, and Latinos for a Healthy California co-sponsored the bill. Assembly Bill 1321 allocated state general funds to statewide nutrition incentive programs, the largest of which is Market Match. In 2019, the California Nutrition Incentive Program received a grant from the GusNIP program.

Market Match is now offered at 269 sites across California and continues to grow. The Ecology Center is working with partners and funders to bring this powerful program to every region and every farmers’ market that wants to participate, expanding access to fresh, healthy food and strengthening local food systems statewide.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Go to the market’s information booth and ask how to receive Market Match. A market staff person will swipe your CalFresh EBT card for the amount of your choice, and you will receive tokens or paper vouchers to spend on any CalFresh-eligible food items at the market. At other farm-direct outlets such as farm stands, CSAs, and mobile markets, you can make a CalFresh purchase just as you would at the grocery store, without tokens or vouchers. Simply choose the items you would like to purchase, go to the checkout, and swipe your CalFresh EBT card.

When you shop at a certified farmers’ market, you’re buying directly from the farm that grew the food. This means you’re supporting the local economy and helping farmers. All of the produce at a certified farmers’ market is grown in California and harvested when it is in season, meaning that everything is fresh, full of flavor, and often priced comparably with a grocery store. Because the produce is generally not stored as long as it is at a grocery store, it has higher nutritional value.

The food has traveled fewer miles to get to the market than food at the grocery store, meaning it has a smaller carbon footprint. Many small and mid-sized farms that sell at farmers’ markets also implement climate-friendly farming practices, such as cover-cropping and rotational grazing.

And it’s fun!