{"id":40567,"date":"2017-07-11T10:39:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T16:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=40567"},"modified":"2017-07-11T11:19:24","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T17:19:24","slug":"snap-shoppers-get-matching-dollars-at-oxford-community-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/snap-shoppers-get-matching-dollars-at-oxford-community-market\/","title":{"rendered":"SNAP shoppers get matching dollars at Oxford Community Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford Community Market<\/strong> is pleased to partner with Move On Up Mississippi<\/strong>, United Way of Oxford and Lafayette County<\/strong>, Baptist Memorial Hospital of North Mississippi<\/strong>, and UM RebelWell<\/strong> to launch <\/span>Oh, SNAP!<\/b> Bonus Veggie Bucks, <\/i><\/b>a program to make fresh, healthy local food accessible to everyone in the LOU community\u2013especially those who are vulnerable to food insecurity. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very proud of this coalition of organizations whose missions align with ours and grateful for their commitment to work with us to reduce barriers that make accessing healthy food a real challenge for so many in our community,\u201d said market director Betsy Chapman<\/strong>. \u201cTheir support will allow us to expand our outreach to families and individuals who receive SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A non-profit organization, Oxford Community Market\u2019s mission is to reduce food insecurity in the Lafayette-Oxford-University Community. OXCM\u2019s <\/span>Oh, SNAP!<\/b> program addresses the barrier of cost that makes accessing healthy fresh fruits and vegetables a challenge for those on tight budgets.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/i><\/b>We want SNAP shoppers to know that it\u2019s easy and rewarding to shop for healthy, local food at farmers markets,\u201d said Chapman.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Oh, SNAP!<\/i><\/b> Program <\/i><\/b>provides SNAP shoppers with <\/span>Bonus Veggie Bucks<\/i><\/b>, a dollar-for-dollar match up to <\/span>$10<\/b> every<\/span><\/i> time they shop at OXCM. The program also provides first-time shoppers gifts, return shopper rewards, and educational opportunities to encourage new SNAP shoppers to become regular farmers market customers. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to keep SNAP customers coming back week after week to enjoy the benefits of our positive, welcoming local food community. Every week, OXCM offers cooking demos, recipes, kids activities, music and special events \u2013 all are free and open to the public,\u201d Chapman said. \u201cOur challenge is spreading the word that SNAP shoppers are welcome at OXCM.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since shopping with SNAP at farmers markets is a relatively new concept and there are over 4,000 SNAP recipients in Lafayette County, getting the word out to SNAP recipients is a big undertaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOXCM is reaching out to community partners who can help spread the word the <\/span>Oh, SNAP!<\/i><\/b> Program<\/i><\/b> through social media channels, newsletters, websites, community calendars, and good-old fashioned word-of-mouth,\u201d said Chapman. \u201cWe are happy to provide your group, organization, or church with posters, digital images, flyers, and market tours.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

OXCM\u2019s other work to make healthy food accessible to all Oxonians includes a weekly fresh food drive during the market, which is every Tuesday from 3\u20136:30 pm at the Old Armory Pavilion<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe donate fresh produce to the Oxford Food Pantry thorough weekly <\/span>OXCM Cares Fresh Food Drive<\/i><\/b>. In fact, since mid-April, we\u2019ve sent close to 800 lbs. of fresh, healthy food to the pantry and to homebound residents of CB Webb,\u201d Chapman noted. \u201cIn addition, we are Lafayette County\u2019s only WIC Farmers Market Voucher Program redemption site.\u201d\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford Community Market is pleased to partner with Move On Up Mississippi, United Way of Oxford and Lafayette<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":40568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[7847,6148,10650,10649],"class_list":["post-40567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-food","tag-move-on-up-mississippi","tag-snap","tag-um-rebelwall","tag-united-way"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/2017-07-11-oh-snap.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}