KIRAN COSTA: Double up food bucks matches every dollar spent on fresh produce when using fooding stamps. Snap users are allowed up to twenty dollars a day when buying fresh fruits and vegetables. The program is used at the syracuse co-op, where manager jermery dechario says produce is often taken for granted.
JEREMY DECHARIO: There are a lot of sort of privileges that people using fresh produce and cooking from scratch have. The number of those is time. But it’s also the little things: do you have a sharp knife and knife skills, do you have a pot, do you have an oven that reliably works. Or do you live in a place where those things aren’t available to you.
COSTA: But the co-op isn’t the only place where the double up food bucks program is used. Brady farms, a local non-profit urban farm here in syracuse also employs the programs .And they say it’s an integral part of what they do.
CAITLIN WILLIAMS: To provide education and volunteer experience in addition to fresh produce.
COSTA: this program is a good start. People believe that more needs to be done.
SIDNEY WELLS: When these people come to do these types of things, in case they have a bad day.The city of syracuse should hit them, not hit them, but give them a stipend just for being here.
DECHARIO: We live in the most prosperous society that has ever existed and people are still starving. This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
COSTA: Kiran Costa, ncc news
The Double Up Food Bucks program allows SNAP users up to twenty-dollars back per day when money is spent on fresh produce. The program is used at a couple different locations around Syracuse including the Cooperative Marker. General Manager Jermey Dechario thinks that many people take their access to fresh produce for granted.
“There are a lot of privileges that people using fresh produce and cooking from scratch have. The number of those is time. But it’s also the little things: do you have a sharp knife and knife skills, do you have a pot, do you have an oven that reliably works. Or do you live in a place where those things aren’t available to you,” says Dechario
Double Up is also used by Brady Farms, a local urban farm here in Syracuse. Market Manager Caitlin WIlliams describes their message.
“To provide education and volunteer experience in addition to fresh produce,” said Williams.
Local residents are very happy that Brady Farms is helping out, but they think the city of Syracuse needs to do more,
“When these people come to do these types of things, in case they have a bad day.The city of Syracuse should hit them, not hit them, but give them a stipend just for being here,” added a resident.
While these programs are doing a lot, Dechario thinks it’s still not enough.
“We live in the most prosperous society that has ever existed and people are still starving. This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature,” Jeremy said.
The Double Up program is a great start, but a lot more work needs to be done here in Syracuse and across the country to combat the growing issue of food insecurity.