 Welcome to the Hawaii Food and Farmers series. My name is Kristen Jamison and today I'm here with a net gala from the Green Wheel Food Hub to chat a little bit about how spending EBT dollars at the farmers markets can help support the local economy and our agriculture here in Hawaii. Welcome, Nenette. Hi, thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to talking with you. Yeah, so can you just start off by telling us a little bit about what you do at Green Wheel and why the organization exists? Sure. Green Wheel Food Hub basically is working to provide support for sustainable local agriculture and particularly we like to focus on getting local fresh food to people who are in underserved areas and to people who are lower income so that they might not normally have this access. Right now our primary focus is on a couple of farmers markets where we support using SNAP which is foodsteps and I'll get to that. So there's two farmers markets where we're at. One is the Honolulu Farmers Market Wednesday at the Blaisdell Center. Everybody just calls it the Blaisdell Market Wednesdays from 4 to 7 in front of the concert hall and the other one is in Kalehi, the crop shop at Kohio Park that is sponsored by Kokua Kalehi Valley. So at those two markets we assist people to use their SNAP benefits to buy fresh local produce or not just produce other any eligible items. So how does that work? Is there a special card that we use? Yes. So first of all SNAP SNAP is supplemental nutrition assistance program. It's the program formerly known as food stamps. Officially it's called SNAP but a lot of people still call it food stamps. And the SNAP benefits are on a debit card called a EBT card. A lot of people ask me what's EBT? Electronic benefits transfer and that includes SNAP benefits and also any cash benefits might include WIC women and kids and children program. So it's one card that acts like a debit card. So the EBT is a card and SNAP is one of the programs that is on there. The balance is kept on that card and so we just swipe that EBT card and people get as many green bucks as they feel they'll need. This is one green buck. Oh it's not showing up very well but it's a token basically worth one dollar. So it's almost like whenever you go to the fair and you get your raffle tickets. Exactly. Well it's script. So it's like script. It's worth one dollar and if they don't use it all they can return it for a refund that goes right back into their card. So you know I have a lot of customers buy more than they think they'll need and they just return what they haven't used. So have you found that this has helped people get more access to local vegetables using EBT cards? Yeah because it's good. Again as I said not just vegetables but any permitted foods which would include breads. Nothing that is meant to be eaten on the spot but people can even buy for example frozen meat, smoked meat to take home or at the Blaisdell Farmers Market there's a guy who sells fresh pasta and sauces. But one thing is that even the prepared foods at that market use as much local product as possible. But anyway so any permitted food they can use this dollar for dollar as if it were cash. They can't get change or make it. There's a few glitches because it's can't be broken. There's rules but basically it's pretty simple. Most of the vendors accept it. The vendors who have any eligible items are very happy to accept it and then at the end of the market they give me back the green bucks that they've collected and then the next week I bring them a check. So it's really great for the vendors. They get a check for their whatever it is without them having to hassle with being able to accept food stamps individually and go through the whole application process and you know whatever hassles are involved. They're very happy with it. But the customers are so thrilled. Over and over people tell me how much better the produce is at the farmers market than it is at supermarkets and that makes sense. Most of the supermarket produce is imported. So it's 10 days old when it arrives. You know I've had people say why I can't believe how long my lettuce keeps or my greens the vegetables are keeping longer. Well they're fresher actually. You know if you like I brought along some lettuce that I bought yesterday if you'd like to take a leaf or two and just crunch it. All I did was wash it. Can you hear this. That's great. I don't know if the audience can hear that. This is so crunchy. I use it like chips. And so you're saying that the quality you get at the farmers market is a lot better because the produce is being picked fresher. You're getting it you know just a couple days after it was harvested right here. Actually that lettuce I bought last night was harvested yesterday. At other markets an evening market it might have been it will have been harvested the same day. A morning market may be the day before. And that freshness also confers you know more nutrition too that you're having access to because the longer it sits there the less nutritious the food becomes. Better flavor which translates into I'm more likely to eat it. So yeah definitely the access to this. And the interesting thing is there's a reputation that farmers markets are expensive. In my experience prices are comparable to the supermarkets if not cheaper. And as I say there it's fresher for the same thing. So a benefit all around there is no downside. Everybody wins. Everybody wins exactly. So with this program how how big is the buying power of EBT to give folks the ability to use their EBT dollars at the farmers market. Well total EBT for the state of Hawaii and I am just giving a very rough number about half a billion dollars a year. Five hundred million dollars a year comes into the state through this federal program. Only a very small of that amount of that is currently going to the farmers markets. And of course people need a lot more than what they can buy at a farmers market. We don't grow wheat here. We don't grow rice here. There's a lot we don't grow. Grains and even cheese. There's very little cheese here or so forth. But the vegetables and other fruits and other products that are grown in Hawaii and there is some meat and there's eggs and there's things like that. It would be lovely if even a small percentage of people would come and buy at the farmers market instead of the supermarket. Because that money when you spend money at whether it's food stamps or your own money that you've earned or inherited or whatever. Money spent at the farmers market. The number I've seen generally and again I'm not sure exactly how this was calculated but I've seen numerous times that a dollar spent at the farmers market will generate about a dollar seven day at least in local economic benefit. So whenever people use their SNAP benefits at the farmers market they're actually using federal dollars to help supplement the local Hawaii economy rather than spending it at a big box grocery store that's going to send a lot of big proceeds of that money back to their corporate profit. Exactly. That's the big benefit to our economy. It also where since local agriculture is so precarious anything that goes to help the farmers remain sustainable and viable is something that benefits everybody in the state. So what are some of the benefits of shopping at a farmers market? Well besides the fact that it's so much fresher and more delicious and keeps longer so that I don't waste it. For me there's the relationship. The first farmers market that I was able to shop at is the KCC market on Saturday mornings which is a bit more than I think it's 14 years a little over 14 years ago that it started. I've been shopping with the same farmers for 14 years. You develop a relationship you know them. Okay this is going to sound awfully hokey. When I am eating something that whether it's just a piece of lettuce or tomato or something that I have cooked I love to cook so something that I have cooked using those local ingredients. I'm very aware of who grew it and the hard work that they put in so that I could enjoy this beautiful food. I feel very grateful and that makes the food much more delicious. That feeling that I have that somebody has worked hard so that I may enjoy this food. That means a lot to me personally and not everybody's going to feel that way but I hope some people may think about it at least. It's not something you get at the grocery store always. Oh heavens no. Heavens no. So yeah that relationship that I've developed plus if I have a question I could ask them. I encourage people to please wait until the farmer isn't busy or the vendor we've been up in a farm stand it might be a baker whatever wait till they can answer your questions but then they're usually happy to chat with people and to answer questions and to explain what something is and it's not just the farmers. The customers too customers at farmers markets tend to be a friendly bunch. Yesterday you came over to our table and we started talking and the next thing here I am on your show. Right across the Isleway was the purveyor of lettuce and asparagus. Exactly. Exactly. So you know when I'm doing my shopping there or I still shop at KCC on Saturdays very often I get into conversations with people other customers what happens is like I'll be picking a broccoli rob and somebody local has never seen broccoli rob so they say oh what is that and then how do you use it and I explain it and say oh I'll try it and they try it and the same thing goes I may ask somebody how do you use this Asian vegetable that I've never seen before and I wind up liking it. So people aren't getting this vegetables at the farmers market they're also getting recipes yes new experiences and new friends. Yes exactly. Yeah so the the benefits there's so many benefits and no downside to shopping at a farmers market. Well the one thing is look again Blaisdell is where I do the green wheel but at KCC I've been shopping there for 14 years I about 12 years ago I stopped buying any vegetables and fruits outside of the farmers markets with rare occasion I may occasionally buy an apple but basically the one thing that I buy that I cannot buy locally grown I can't cook without garlic and nobody's growing garlic they've tried but garlic just doesn't grow well here so I buy garlic otherwise produce is from the farmers market. Why did you make that choice you know for the last 14 years to pretty much shop exclusively at farmers markets for your produce? Partly because of the higher quality why should I buy something that is going to rot in two days and but also it's really the relationships that I've developed with the vendors and also my desire to support local agriculture as I said there's no downside to it it's all positive. I factually when one vegetable that I love is my mother was French so I grew up eating asparagus and artichokes and no but no artichokes here and I have literally stood in a market looking at artichokes and I look and the stem is kind of brown and I just say you're so long from the farm and I put it back. Wow yeah well thank you so much for sharing all this information you have about your experience at farmers markets. You're going to take a quick two minute break and then we'll be back to talk a little bit more about farmers market after a couple messages. Aloha my name is John White Haley and I used to be a part of all the things that you might be angry at. I served in government here and may have made decisions that affects you so I want to invite you in. I want to invite you in to talk story with me and some very special guests every other Monday here at Talk Story with John White Haley. Come on in join us express your opinion learn more about your state and then do something about it. Aloha. Welcome back to the Hawaii Food and Farmers series. I'm here with Nanette Geller talking about farmers markets and the local EBT program with Green Wheel Hawaii. Thanks welcome back Nanette. Thank you. It's Green Wheel Food Hub. Green Wheel Food Hub yeah. So right before the break we are chatting about some of the things that you can and can't find at a local farmers market. So what are some of the things that are really tough to find locally. Well as I said the one thing that I must have is garlic. I had then there's like stone fruits peaches plums apricots but even if I can if I buy them at a supermarket they're not nearly as good as I remember eating them when they were fresh from when I was a kid. So I don't miss them. Honestly why would I care about peaches when I could eat mangoes when they're in season. I live for mango season. I occasionally buy an apple occasionally but really there isn't that much that I feel oh I want that and I can't find it. I usually manage it's not about what I can't find it's what I can find and part of it is how do you shop how do you cook. I look to see and I've done this all all my life not just because of the farmers markets. I look to see what's there and I buy say how will I use this which I can buy rather than saying oh I want to make artichokes that I can't find artichokes darn. So in the kitchen rather than building your grocery list around a recipe you're building your recipes around what you can find at the farmers market. Exactly. That kind of reverses almost the way that a lot of people cook. That's true and it doesn't take long to change that mindset especially when the results are so delicious. You know when ingredients are this fresh and delicious it's so much easier to cook. I don't have to do very much to them to have a feast. What are some of your favorite local ingredients to cook with. Well actually the asparagus because I've loved asparagus all my life so I buy it very often when there's skinny spears I toss them with olive oil and roast them at high temperature for about 10 minutes and then I can just serve them on a plate I could serve them with a poached egg on top I could make a pasta I could make a salad I could put them in sandwiches all kinds of what things this or I might this is a kind of a fat spear I could use it in a stir-fry I could steam it what I'm actually going to do tonight is kind of interesting I'm going to make a pizza shave this with a vegetable peeler and in very thin shavings and pile it on top of some the cheese on it the pizza crust cook it and when it's almost ready I'm going to add a couple of local eggs and put it back so that the eggs are really still runny and that's going to be dinner tonight and I was all inspired by the asparagus that you picked up yesterday when they're fat like this I sometimes do that and when they're skinny I do something completely different so yes I buy asparagus actually very often but what I'm going to do with it depends on what kind of asparagus I find but all of this a lot of it is seasonal so right now I we're buying a lot of oranges and tangerines because the citrus is in season so we're eating that every day you don't have to do anything with a local orange other than cut it and put it on a plate when you're talking about the oranges and how you know you can't get stone fruits in Hawaii I like how you didn't frame it as oh I have to sacrifice you know peaches because I eat local but rather oh look at the abundance of other types of fruits that I have access to. Rejoice in what you have and life is so much more pleasant and so one of the things you know that you said we don't have that it's hard to you know sacrificing about this garlic that is one thing I really like my mother was French I can't cook without garlic come on so that's one thing I buy but it this brings us to something there are a lot of so-called farmers markets that a lot of the stuff is imported sometimes most of it and you can one thing I do when I go to a new farmers market a place I haven't been I look around if I see garlic I know that they permit imported stuff and I don't blame the vendors if it's permitted I don't care but don't call yourself a farmers market if it's wholesalers selling their off-grade produce or overstocks or even if it's first grade stuff but imported what's a great pro tip you know if you're at a farmers market look for garlic you know that not everything on the table yeah and some of it may be but you have to ask and I've found with very rare exceptions I think that people will be honest and tell you if you say is this did you grow this or is this from Hawaii they will be honest but you have to know to ask so what questions should people be asking and that the farmers market well as I said the first question it is if it's a market you haven't been to before now I know at the Blaisdell market and kids they there is a very strict rule all produce has to be from the state of Hawaii and that's not the case at all the farmers market right it's it's the case at the Blaisdell or actually and some of there are other markets where I know that is true the KCC market it's true actually all of the markets that are run by the farm bureau they do have a strict rule about that it's got to be from Hawaii they won't allow which is why you won't find garlic there are other farmers markets excellent well-run and very strict about only local produce but many when you're right here near Ford Street mall you'll see plenty of garlic down there it's not local so I would say the first thing you do is look and see if you see garlic if you don't see garlic ask what is the policy on produce that is not from Hawaii and again I have never had anyone lie to me as far as I know they will usually be happy to tell you what is local and what isn't if it's not if it isn't all local so I try to I try to support markets that are 100 local that's my own preference but if I have to fill in with from a market like Ford Street Ball or Manoa or something where they have imported stuff at least I can check to see what's local rather than asking you know what isn't isn't local are there any other questions you like to ask farmers I do I actually and again this is personal I will ask about the growing practices for example obviously if somebody is certified organic that has a lot of meaning there's also there are some farmers who do what's called Korean natural farming but many farmers are following a really good practice they many of them are no spray or if they use any fungicides or sprays they're using the same ones that an organic farmer would use so I would rather you know I do ask about those practices and if it's something that matters to you uh you can ask and make a decision on whether it's okay with you um those those are the main things I ask oh of course I say where is your farm and what else do you grow and what other markets do you participate in I may ask so if anybody's interested in being part of the Greenwill Food Hub program you know to have access to buy local produce with their snap dollars how can they get started well okay if they already have snap they just come to my table at the play still and I will assist them so they the individual what farmers do not accept their ebt card they just come to me as many green bucks as they think they're going to need and I will give them I'll tell them what they could buy I have a paper that lists the vendors who accept it and what types of items they're allowed to buy so it's really easy but if somebody does not yet have ebt and they think gosh I might qualify I'm low income and I could really use some extra money to pay for food um then the this is the uh brochure helping hands Hawaii and if you can have the phone number there but we're just call helping hands Hawaii they screen for eligibility and then um help with the problem with process great well hopefully um after today some more folks might be coming down to a bladesdale to I hope so to use their ebt dollars at um the farmers market through the Greenwill Food Hub and thanks so much for sharing you know your my pleasure of expertise on farmers markets here in Hawaii my pleasure and thank you very much for having me this has been the Hawaii Food and Farmers series with Nanette Geller talking about the Greenwill Food Hub here in Hawaii thanks so much would you like to take these home I'd love to thank you it's fantastic it's great that is here's the bags they were good well thank you so much by the way this is good raw too I know it's people don't realize you can eat asparagus oh it's delicious in fact um you know people make a salad of shaved asparagus the thick ones are perfect for that so here I kind of nibbled it this way