OXFORD - The beloved Oxford Farmers' Market that has been going strong for the last twelve years is now focusing on making fresh, local food affordable to all.

“Providing access to locally grown and produced food has been the Market’s intention  since we lost our grocery store in Oxford,” said Trellan Smith, one of the market's founders. “Now that we have an abundance of fresh produce, meats, eggs, dairy, and baked goods at the Market every Saturday, we are focusing on extending the reach of the Oxford Farmers’ Market by partnering with several food assistance programs.”

The first of these programs is the federal government’s well-known SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), previously called food stamps. What makes the market particularly attractive to SNAP beneficiaries is New York’s FreshConnect program, which matches SNAP purchases at farmers' markets in the state. “For every two dollars a SNAP user spends out of their EBT card at the market, we give them a two-dollar FreshConnect check, which they can spend at this or any other farmers’ market or farm stand on SNAP-eligible items,” said Patricia Roth, a volunteer who was at the SNAP table at last Saturday’s market in Lafayette Park in the Village of Oxford. 

“I want to feed my community and take care of our water and soil at the same time,” said Mary Rutz, a fourth-generation farmer from Greene, who was buying eggs at the market with her eight-month-old daughter, while her husband Jonathan Rodriguez was making brisk sales of their fresh organic greens. “We go beyond organic. When you farm that way, it can cost a bit more in the short term than produce grown with chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. It is great that the state has chosen to support both local farmers and consumers who are looking for healthy food, and that our market has signed up for this program,” she added. 

Mary and Jonathan’s Wander Creek Farm, Kathryn Clemens’s Sunrise Farms, and Bersani Produce also accept Farmers Market Nutrition Programs (FMNP) checks, which the state distributes to low-income seniors, new mothers, and children.

The Prescription Rx and Prescription Rx Plus programs treat food as medicine. Doctors can hand out checks from these programs to patients to whom they prescribe healthy food. Prescription Rx checks pay for produce, while Rx Plus, a new pilot program in Chenango county, pays for produce and protein. Oxford Farmers’ Market welcomes these programs as well.

The market runs all summer every Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon at Lafayette Park in Oxford. During the winter, it runs once a month as an indoor market and twice a month as an online market with curbside pickup. To learn more about the Oxford Farmers’ Market and their food assistance programs, visit their website,  www.oxfordfarmersmarket.org.

- Information from the Oxford Farmers' Market