Slow Foods Wallowas 2nd Annual Pig-nic

Slow Food Wallowas announces the 2^nd Annual Pig-nic on Sunday, September 22^rd from 3-7 p.m. –a FUNdraiser  to support a SNAP Match Program for Wallowa County’s Farmers’ Markets.
 
The dinner event will feature roasted local pork with cherry chutney, homemade sides and fresh-churned ice cream as part of a fun-filled afternoon celebrating community and local food producers. There will be music from Darrell Brann & Family and delicious raffle items plus apple cider pressing. Proceeds will go to support an ambitious, collaborative project to increase access to fresh foods among SNAP users from the Wallowa County Farmers Market and the Lower Valley Farmers Market.

The SNAP “Fresh” match program will provide $5 worth of Farmers’ Market credit towards the purchase of fresh foods to SNAP users who redeem $5 or more of their benefits at market.  The $5 match will be distributed as a token, which can be used at any market within Wallowa County throughout the season. Tokens will be in $5 denominations and must be redeemed on SNAP-eligible fresh foods.
 
The Wallowa County Farmers’ Market (WCFM) will administer the overall program, including receipt of funds from supporting organizations and businesses, and dispersal of funds to each market. Each market manager will be responsible for administering the benefits at their market, including record-keeping, accounting for tokens, paying vendors, and tracking the total dispersal of matching funds.  When a market has distributed its initial set of funds, WCFM will supply additional funds as available.
 
In addition to seeking support from the Pig-nic and Slow Food Wallowas, the markets plan to seek matching funds from businesses and organizations.  To enable long-term sustainability of matching funds, the markets are also developing an earned income strategy modeled after the successful Newport Farmers’ Market lemonade stand on the Oregon coast.  The farmers’ markets will collect a minimum of $500 in match before implementing the program.