A visit to the Wheat Ridge Farmer’s Market at 4252 Wadsworth Blvd. on any Thursday between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. through October brings more than the splash of red, green, purple and yellow fresh fruits and vegetables spilling over tables and bins. There is also a sense of community, of people from different backgrounds, incomes, and cultures sharing in the tastes, smells and pending menus made possible. The Wheat Ridge Farmers’ Market is embracing this diversity and taking steps to create a healthier and more sustainable Jefferson County by accepting food assistance benefits, also known as food stamps, at the market.

The Wheat Ridge Farmers’ Market food stamp acceptance program, coordinated by the Jefferson Conservation District, is funded by Jefferson County Public Health LiveWell Wheat Ridge Coalition and made possible through partnerships with the City of Wheat Ridge, Metro Denver Farmers’ Market and the Colorado Farmers’ Market Association. These organizations have partnered to ensure the benefits of a farmers’ market are available to everyone in the community, including those on limited income who receive food assistance benefits. The availability of an EBT machine at the Wheat Ridge Farmers’ Market provides food stamp recipients another important source of nutritious foods. It also provides the local farmers more potential customers helping to stimulate the local economy.

In the past, farmers could accept paper food stamps, but the new Electronic Benefit cards require infrastructure such as electricity and a wireless terminal, as well as the payment of monthly fees, making it much more difficult for farmers’ markets to accept food stamp benefits. Thanks to community interest, funding from LiveWell Colorado and coordination by the Jefferson Conservation District, this new Electronic Benefit (EBT) machine is up and running at the Wheat Ridge Farmers’ Market. 

• Wheat Ridge is a designated LiveWell community by LiveWell Colorado.  LiveWell Colorado http://www.livewellcolorado.org is a non-profit committed to reducing obesity in Colorado by inspiring healthy eating and active living. LiveWell Colorado aims to provide every Coloradoan with access to healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity in the places they live, work, learn and play.  For more information, or to get involved with LiveWell Wheat Ridge, please contact Molly Hanson, LiveWell Wheat Ridge Coordinator, at mhanson@jeffco.us or at (720) 345-8547. 
  
• The Jefferson Conservation District (JCD) works to promote stewardship of the land.  Towards this end, the JCD partners with private land owners, communities and government agencies in Jefferson, Clear Creek and Gilpin counties.  The District’s urban agriculture program, JeffGROW, works to improve access to agricultural activities and local food in Jefferson County’s urban areas through community program creation and resource aggregation.  For more information, please contact 720-544-2870 or visit us on the web at www.jeffersonconservationdistrict.org