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Re: CSA and food stamps



I used to take food stamps, do not and never will again.

After three years with no problem, my bank started charging a $5 monthly
"usage" fee on the "free" savings account without announcing beforehand that
it intended to do so.  They'd hit me for $15 before I took a close look at the
statement.

Not a big deal?  It wouldn't be if I was taking in thousands of dollars, but
as a service for some of my low-income shareholders I undertook the hassles
for about $200 a year in stamps.  Hardly worth paying $60 in fees for, and I
couldn't find another bank that would permit to to have a free account for
passing the stamps through -- but USDA insists that that's how it has to be
done.

Yet the program was supposedly set up to help farmers and poor people, not
bankers.  Hummmm.  

I now allow folks to work off up to half of their share, and have just closed
a deal with the regional food bank's director to operate a farmer's market at
their warehouse right next to the area's biggest mall -- and for farmers to be
able to donate leftovers straight into the warehouse coolers and receive a
tax-deductible donation receipt for same.  I don't know about anybody else,
but between the great location and not having to figure out what to do with
good food that didn't sell (when I'm already fried, baked, and frazzled from a
long day) -- I am going to be one very happy market person this summer!

And when people ask me to let them work off their total share, I direct them
to the food bank.  

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm & Center for Sustainable Living
Rural New York