Families with low incomes weren’t patronizing Clark County’s farmers markets, despite the tempting array of locally grown fruits and vegetables.

“There was this perception that farmers markets were for the upper-middle class, that the food was too expensive for them,” says Angela Shields, Washington State University Extension’s SNAP-Ed nutrition program coordinator in the southwestern Washington county.

To make the markets more welcoming, SNAP-Ed started offering tours to families who receive food benefits. Now in their fifth year, the tours teach people how to use their benefits at the markets, including a state match that subsidizes purchases of items like fresh strawberries, local peaches, and other produce.

About 11 percent of Washington residents qualify for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. But eating healthy on a limited budget can be challenging. That’s where WSU Extension’s SNAP-Ed program comes in.

Last year, the federally funded grant program reached more than 1.1 million Washington residents. SNAP-Ed works with schools, nonprofits, and other organizations across the state to improve access to nourishing foods and healthy activities for people who receive SNAP benefits. By partnering with local entities, SNAP-Ed helps address specific community needs⁠—whether that’s serving healthier school lunches, teaching young people how to cook, or getting a community garden going at a senior housing complex.

In Clark County, the market tours grew out of talks between SNAP-Ed and the Vancouver Farmers Market.

This year, more than 500 people took part in market tours in Vancouver and Camas, which are offered in English, Spanish, and Russian. Besides meeting local growers, participants learn how to exchange their SNAP benefits for the tokens used for purchases. They also get information about Washington’s Market Match program, which provides up to $25 for fruit and vegetable purchases, and the markets’ free Produce Pals tokens for kids.

“You’re not just giving families a onetime bag of produce, you’re teaching them how to utilize a complicated benefits system and leverage it for more buying power,” says Stephanie Clark, director of partnerships and programs at the Vancouver Farmers Market. “It’s really encouraged people who haven’t previously shopped at the farmers market to come.”

SNAP-Ed has three market ambassadors who promote the tours to local Russian- and Spanish-speaking residents and Clark County’s other communities of color. Having a trusted member of those communities vouch for the tours builds credibility and helps get the word out, Shields says.

Once people have taken a tour, many of them become repeat customers, according to SNAP-Ed’s tracking data. Their purchases⁠—worth tens of thousands of dollars each year⁠—also support the local agricultural community, Clark says.

Providing fresh, culturally relevant foods is part of Ahndrea Blue’s mission at Eloise’s Cooking Pot Food Bank in Tacoma. When clients ask for oxtails, collard greens, or bok choy, she looks for suppliers.

“We think people should have access to familiar foods they enjoy without judgment,” says Blue, founder and CEO of Making a Difference Foundation, the food bank’s parent organization. “We want to honor everyone’s community.”

In that spirit, Blue asked SNAP-Ed to develop healthy recipes for meal kits for the food bank’s diabetic and prediabetic clients. The meals had to be nutritious, affordable, and easy to prepare. Equally important, they had to appeal to clients’ tastes, which ranged from traditional American fare, such as soul food, to Asian and Mexican cuisines.

That’s just the kind of challenge that Linda Olivas Mathews, Pierce County Extension’s SNAP-Ed program director, and her staff enjoy. The team includes people with nutrition, dietary, and culinary backgrounds. They experimented with recipes⁠—swapping out ingredients and testing the nutritional content.

“Sometimes we’re behind the scenes, doing work that can’t easily be done by busy nonprofit staff. It’s all part of our educational outreach mission,” Mathews says. Last year, SNAP-Ed did a similar project for Virginia Mason Franciscan Health’s nonprofit, CommonSpirit, for food boxes delivered by Tacoma’s Emergency Food Network.

For Eloise’s Cooking Pot, SNAP-Ed created healthy versions of 12 entrées, including orange chicken, mac and cheese, gumbo, and a Mexican soup called menudo. Food bank clients raved about the meal kits. One woman said she was inspired to cook for the first time since her husband died. Others reported improved health outcomes.

With fresh, flavorful ingredients, the meal kits demonstrate what is possible on a budget. And with familiar entrées that people enjoy, clients are more likely to cook those meals again, Blue says.

At Valle Lindo, a migrant housing complex in Walla Walla County, getting kids to eat their vegetables starts in the garden.

“We’ve noticed that if the students are growing it, they’re more willing to try something,” says Meike VanDonge, WSU Extension coordinator supervisor for Walla Walla, Benton, Franklin, and Asotin Counties. “They get to dig in the dirt, see where food comes from, and learn some science too.”

Gardening at Valle Lindo complex in Walla Walla
(Courtesy WSU Extension)

SNAP-Ed partners with Valle Lindo’s after-school program. In early summer, elementary and middle-school students decide what to plant. After sowing seeds and planting starts for tomatoes and peppers, they watered and tended the garden through a celebratory harvest in August.

While their garden matured, the students grew mushroom kits and sprouted indoor microgreens. “Radish, mustard, and cilantro sprouts can really pack a flavor punch,” VanDonge says. “Part of the fun for kids is seeing things that grow really fast. It gives them a quick reward.”

Students also grew sunflowers and herbs, which became part of their cooking projects. They used fruits and vegetables in art projects, journaled about the garden’s progress, and performed taste tests, analyzing how flavor and texture contributed to their like or dislike of various produce items.

“It helps awaken their interest in trying new foods and develop their palate,” VanDonge says.

The garden is grown in five-gallon grow bags. After the harvest, the students got to take their grow bags home with seeds for cool-weather crops, so they can continue gardening.