Roanoke City Market vendors started accepting EBT cards, or food stamps, back in April, as part of a state push to get more fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables to more people. And vendors say the program is taking off.
Vendor Annette Fleisher loves the increased customer traffic at her stall looking for healthy produce. She wishes her husband would would do it more often.
"My husband brought home Long John Silvers last night, and it was nasty, and it cost a lot for what it was," Fleisher said.
Reality is, many people in Roanoke haven't had healthy options and easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables, until now.
"They are tickled to death," said vendor Tim Belcher.
Belcher has had his own machine for debit and credit cards, but the market vendors have never taken EBT cards. Belcher says customers spend $30 to $50 a week using them.
Downtown Roanoke Inc. (DRI) uses an iPad to add up transactions for people using EBT cards. DRI takes that amount, and gives it to the customers in tokens. Then at the end of the week, DRI collects the tokens from the vendors, and cuts the vendors a check for that amount.
Since the launch, Sean Luther with DRI says close to $1,000 has been spent through EBT cards, and the families are loving it.
"We are teaching kids to buy produce, and it is slowly changing the eating patterns for a lot of people where this wasn't an option for them," said Luther.
Expect more places to start accepting EBT cards. Luther says, there is a big push for it from the federal government.
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