Date of Completion

2025

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Community Development Applied Economics

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

David Conner

Second Advisor

Anaka Aiyar

Third Advisor

Travis Reynolds

Keywords

farmers’ markets, nutrition incentives, supplemental nutrition assistance program, SNAP, qualitative research

Abstract

The Crop Cash Program provides households who receive food benefits up to $20 of coupons to spend on fresh produce when they shop at participating farmers’ markets in Vermont. Based on interviews with eight Vermont farmers’ market managers, the program is reported to increase food and nutrition security of low-income households, support farm viability, and have positive economic and social impacts that extend to the broader community. Challenges to the program include consistency of funding, complex administration, and outreach. Future research directions include investigating best practices for program administration and ways to maximizing program participation.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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