calfresh

Celebrate CalFresh Month at MCM on May 8th!

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Blog, Health promotion | Leave a comment

DSC_0353Many people don’t know that CalFresh is the new name for California’s electronic food stamp benefit program. Federally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), CalFresh can help low-income Mission families put healthy and nutritious food on the table. We’re celebrating CalFresh customers this month at MCM, and on May 8th we’ll have a special CalFresh Awareness Day!

Mission Community Market has accepted food stamp benefits since its inception, and we partnered with The Bi-Rite Family of Businesses in late 2013 to offer a dollar-for-dollar match (up to $10) for patrons who shop at the market with their CalFresh card. This benefit was previously offered in 2012 and we were thrilled to bring it back this season with Bi-Rite’s support.  CalFresh users can swipe their card every week at the market for up to $10 in free produce!

Join us on May 8th as we feature:

A Presentation from Bi-Rite! Join us at 6:00 pm when Sam Mogannam will say a few words.

Giveaways – The first 50 CalFresh customers get a free item ($3-6 value) donated by MCM vendors! Choose from fruit and veggies, salsa, mini jams, baguettes, and more!

Benefits Pre-Screenings From SF-Marin Food Bank – You may qualify for CalFresh benefits – Talk to a specialist!

An Urban Sprouts Healthy Cooking Demo  – Learn to cook with what you can get at the market!

Community Outreach Tables – Chat with folks from The Women’s Building and The Shanti Project

Live Music from Benjamin Brown at 4 pm and Dean Harlem at 6 pm

Join us for a great day at MCM and celebrate healthy eating with us!

The Mercado Match is Back!

Posted on by Mission Community Market in Blog, Health promotion | Leave a comment

Wondering what kind of awesome programming MCM offers to the community with funds from our fundraising efforts?

One example is a recent partnership with the Bi-Rite Family of Businesses, which will enable us to bring back the Mercado Match program, which we previously offered in 2011 and 2012.

This wildly popular matching benefit gives CalFresh (food stamp) users up to $10 free to use toward fresh fruit and vegetables when they swipe their card at the market. Beginning Thursday December 5th, 2013, we’ll make this weekly benefit available as long as possible to help incentivize grocery shopping at the market this holiday season and on into 2014. If you’re an EBT user, come by the MCM info booth this Thursday to learn more! 

The Mission Community Market would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Bi-Rite for their generosity!