About
The Farm Direct Nutrition Incentive Guide Site is an information portal and resource library on how to put nutrition incentives into practice at farm stands, farmers markets, CSAs, and other farm direct sites. The library brings together the wealth of resources developed by farm direct practitioners across North America. We’ve gathered materials and information from websites, presentations, podcasts, and webinars all across the field of farm direct nutrition incentives to help you find what you need in one place, and learn about organizations that share your mission to create an equitable and sustainable food system for all.
This site is for on-the-ground operators distributing nutrition incentives at farm direct sites. Nutrition incentives were formed and implemented as a way to increase community access to local foods in farmers markets. Today, nutrition incentive programs have evolved and adapted to increase the purchasing power of shoppers who use SNAP and support their active participation in the local food movement at many different kinds of outlets.
Although implementing a nutrition incentive program can be very impactful for your customers and community, it can be a cumbersome process. You’re not alone! If you manage a farm direct site and want to implement, improve, or expand your nutrition incentive programs, this site is for you. If you are a GusNIP grantee or other network administrator coordinating across multiple sites, you can find resources here to help support your site-level managers as well.
For more information, including how to submit or suggest resources for inclusion in the library, please see our FAQ page.
The Farm Direct Nutrition Incentive Guide Site was created by the Farmers Market Coalition, with support from our partners in farm direct technical assistance at the Michigan Farmers Market Association (MIFMA) and the Ecology Center. Amanda Marie Edmonds, the former executive director of Growing Hope, consulted with FMC and was integral to the creation of this library. She gathered and organized hundreds of core resources and created the original topic clusters that the library uses.
The Farmers Market Coalition is a proud partner of the Nutrition Incentive Hub. Created by the Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Center (NTAE), the Nutrition Incentive Hub is a national resource supporting Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) applicants and grantees. Collaboratively, Nutrition Incentive Hub partners provide training, technical assistance, reporting, and evaluation assistance and resources for those who want to launch or expand GusNIP-supported nutrition incentive or produce prescription projects across the country. These efforts help families and individuals experiencing food insecurity purchase and consume more fruits and vegetables.
The Nutrition Incentive Hub is led by Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition in partnership with Fair Food Network along with a coalition of practitioners, grocery and farmers market experts, evaluators, and researchers dedicated to strengthening and uniting the best thinking in the field to increase access to and affordability of fruits and vegetables for those who need it most.