Government programs are notorious for begetting gripe fests. You show me a government program, and I will show you someone who has a problem with it. Still, there are those rare government programs that seem to please everyone. Take the WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Programs for instance. Everyone loves them. So if everyone loves them, what’s the problem?

FMNP – A primer
USDA’s Farmers Market Nutrition Programs (FMNP) are federal-state partnership programs that provide nutritional education and supplementation. The mission of the FMNPs is threefold:

•To provide nutritional education and supplementation to low-income seniors and families with young children;
•To support the development of farmers markets;
•To enhance the ability of farmers to sell their crops directly to the public through farmers markets.

Program participants are issued special checks that can only be used for fresh fruits and vegetables purchased directly from the farms that grew them at farmers markets. The dollar increment per check and the total dollar amount of these checks given to program participants varies from state to state, within range guidelines set by USDA. Seniors and families must meet income guidelines to participate in the FMNP, and farmers markets and farms must be authorized and trained by their state or tribal nation to take farmers market checks.

Not all states participate in the FMNPs, and some participate in one and not the other. Also, tribal nations may participate in the programs. States and tribal nations must put up a partial match to USDA funds for the WIC FMNP, which has been one barrier to participation, and they must also manage the programs themselves, under USDA supervision and contract, which some are not equipped to do.

The FMNPs take federal funds and put them in the hands of nutritionally at-risk people with the caveat that they be used only for fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. Because FMNP checks may only be used to purchase this produce directly from the grower at an authorized farmers market, not only do these funds go directly to family farmers, but they also stay in the local economy. The result is that these federal funds touch many hands while improving the health of some of our nation’s most vulnerable, and they bolster local communities. Would that every government program should do so much!

So what’s the problem?
If there is one persistent complaint about the FMNPs in the minds of state and tribal program managers and would-be program managers, as well as market managers and vendors, it is that Congress has not adequately funded them. The WIC FMNP was federally funded at $20 million in 2007, the level at which it has been funded for years. And after the death of the Dorgan-Grassley Amendment in the 2007 Farm Bill on December 13, 2007, it is likely to stay that way in 2008, said Don Wambles, Legislative Committee Chair for the National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs (NAFMNP) and President of the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC). That amendment would have limited individual farm commodity payments to $250,000, and it would have shifted the commodities budget surplus generated by that limit to, among other things, the FMNPs – an additional $50 million for the Senior FMNP and $40 million for the WIC FMNP, said Wambles.

“It is now hoped that the WIC FMNP will continue to be funded by WIC program discretionary funds at $20 million in 2008, as always,” said Wambles, who is also the Director of the Farmers Market Authority for the State of Alabama. “Hoped,” he said, because WIC program discretionary funds have never been a sure thing in and of themselves. While the WIC program historically has left $20 million for WIC FMNP in its budget, that budget must be renewed annually, and the WIC program, like every other domestic program, has had its budget reduced significantly in recent years. Without WIC FMNP having its funding assured under the Dorgan-Grassley Amendment in the Farm Bill, increasing its budget, and even maintaining it at historic levels, becomes a stressful annual fight.

The Senior FMNP is already part of the Farm Bill, so its fate is a little less uncertain from year-to-year, but its future is by no means certain until the Farm Bill is finally passed.

“The 2007 Farm Bill was sent by Congress to Conference Committee [on December 14, 2007] with $15 million per year budgeted for Senior FMNP by both the House and the Senate,” Wambles said. “However, while the Senate version included an increase of $10 million per year for the five-year life of this Farm Bill, the House version only authorized an increase in funding, without the inclusion of a mechanism to fund that increase.” When the Farm Bill Conference Committee convenes, likely in the beginning of January 2008, the Senate’s expansion of Senior FMNP will be back on the table.

The devil is in the details
For such an effective program, when it is adequately funded, the details of the federal regulations governing it can give state administrators and local market activists as much of a headache at times as the battle for Congressional funding.

For instance, it used to be that states in the WIC FMNP program were required to put up a 30 percent match for all federal funds. Hard work by members of the NAFMNP with USDA has resulted in the elimination of a match requirement for federal WIC FMNP food dollars. That has been a stabilizing factor for many states’ programs, but they are still required to match federal administration dollars at 30 percent. To make things more complicated, USDA regulations require that states spend no more than 17 percent of federal dollars on administration. It can be a confusing formula, but states are now better positioned to draw down the federal food dollars – the dollars that actually go directly in farmers market check form to program participants – thus enabling them to maintain the number of people their programs serve.

Still, it used to be that any funds left over at the end of one year could be rolled over into the next year. During the era when states had to match food dollars, some states would have federal allotments they were unable to match during a given year, and they would return them to USDA. Funds left over were then rolled over, allowing the program at one point to expand significantly beyond $20 million. But USDA put a stop to the rollover practice, and, frankly, with the elimination of the food dollar match requirement, states were no longer returning funds to USDA. Suddenly, because rollover funds from previous years had swelled the program, states saw their federal WIC FMNP grants reduced by more than 10 percent each in order to bring the budget back to $20 million again.

The Senior FMNP does not require any state match of federal funds, and while initially it did not provide any federal funds for administration, it now allows 10% of federal funds to be used for it. And while Senior FMNP regulations do allow for surplus funds to be carried over to the next year, no surplus funds existed at the start of 2007, and Wambles does not anticipate any in 2008 either.

Good news, bad news
Another point of contention over the years has been the WIC Food Package, the set of regulations from USDA that determine for what products WIC dollars may be used. For the WIC FMNP, items previously disallowed but desired by many have included eggs, nuts and honey. WIC FMNP regulations only allow farmers market checks to be used for fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables. The idea has been to maximize food dollars by not having them pay for processing costs while ensuring program participants get produce at its most nutritionally rich and offering them an opportunity to learn how to eat better by learning how to prepare fresh produce themselves. As for eggs, nuts and honey, additional concerns have been raised about potential food allergies, and honey had been perceived as processed.

The good news is that honey may be added to the WIC FMNP food package in the Farm Bill, said Wambles.
“Honey is in both the House and Senate bills,” he said. He recommended that you check with your state’s administrator after the Farm Bill is finally passed, likely sometime in late February, to see if in fact honey has been added.

The potential bad news for WIC FMNP comes from the food package for the larger WIC program, which provides participants with vouchers for various specific types of groceries. Historically, carrots have been the only fresh produce included in the WIC food package. But the new WIC food package in the Farm Bill will add fresh fruits and vegetables, Wambles said. “Some are concerned that WIC FMNP participants might be less likely to make the effort to go to their local farmers market, especially with high gas prices, when they can conveniently get fresh produce at any grocery store,” explained Wambles. However, given limited WIC FMNP funding, many potential participants have yet to be reached by the program, and most participants say they enjoy farmers market produce and would go back, even spending their own money, according to a survey conducted by NAFMNP.

How can my state get FMNP?
At present, expansion of the FMNPs to new states is strictly defined in the USDA regulations, said Wambles. Those regulations state that the first priority of federal funds is to maintain the funding levels of current state and tribal programs. When any new funds become available, only then can new state and tribal programs be added, after current programs have had their funding levels fully restored. 25 percent of new funds beyond that point will be required to go to fund new state and tribal programs, with the rest being available to expand existing programs, said Wambles.

While all this might make one feel a bit overwhelmed and helpless, there is plenty one can do. First, funding for the Senior FMNP is still under debate in the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill Conference Committee convenes in January. If the Senate version of funding for Senior FMNP survives it, funding for it will increase $10 million per year of the five-year life of the Farm Bill, meaning the program will increase to $75 million by the end of this Farm Bill. And the 2008 Appropriations Bill has yet to be finalized. While WIC FMNP appears to have lost out in the Farm Bill, it could still get a bump in the WIC budget in the Appropriations Bill, and even if it doesn’t in 2008, the issue will be revisited every year.

Now is a good time to introduce yourself to your local Congressional Representative or Senator and educate them about how much you value the FMNPs. Let them know how much they do, or would, benefit your farm or farmers market. Encourage their support, and ask them who is on the Farm Bill Conference Committee, so that you might contact them as well. And educate your state legislators and agencies as well. States, where farmers market and food security communities have banded together to educate their elected and agency officials about FMNP, have been very successful in maintain and expanding their programs.
Get more information on FMNPs, and how you can help support them, from the National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs at www.nafmnp.org, or from the Farmers Market Coalition at www.farmersmarketcoalition.org. NAFMNP is the national organization that provides information and technical assistance for FMNPs. FMC is the national association of farmers markets and operates an information clearinghouse.

Zachary D. Lyons is a freelance food and agriculture writer based in Seattle. He served as Executive Director of the Washington State Farmers Market Association from 1999-2005, and he served on the board of the National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs. He speaks about direct marketing at conferences, workshops and market meetings and provides market consulting.

Editor’s note: In a letter to The Natural Farmer, a New York State farmers market manager warned that the switch to plastic debit cards for the FMNPs would harm small markets and small growers. Sarah Pappenheimer of the Willimantic Farmers Market said that last summer, sales on the plastic debit cards totaled $70 divided among six vendors for the entire season. The cost to the market was $310 to the phone company for a business line, plus staff to operate the machine. She urged farmers to tell their legislators to maintain paper coupons for the farmers market programs.