The Ecology Center also serves as a resource center on all topics environmental, and has a store at its headquarters on San Pablo Avenue offering all kinds of recycled goods and environmentally-friendly gifts.

While the market finder can certainly be used by those traveling in other parts of the state, Bourque said it was actually developed to make shopping at farmers markets easier for lower-income people. That also falls in line with the Ecology Center’s mission, which led the way in helping markets to accept CalFresh benefits. In 2003, a new method to distribute “food stamps” began in the form of an electronic debit card, and given that the markets didn’t have the technology to accept them, that was $8 billion worth of potential revenue lost.

CalFresh benefits are exchanged at this booth for tokens to allow customers to shop at a farmers' market. Here, former Berkeley farmers' market Manager Katie Hannon Michel staffs the booth. Photo: Courtesy of the Ecology Center.

Now if customers want to spend their benefits at a market, “they go to the information booth, and their electronic card is debited for the amount they ask for in scrip, in the form of wooden nickels,” said Carle Brinkman, Program Manager of the Farmers’ Market Access & Equity Program of the Ecology Center.

These tokens allow low-income people who receive CalFresh benefits to shop at farmers' markets. Photo: Courtesy of the Ecology Center.

“We were the first in the state to make it possible for people to use those cards at farmers markets, and have since helped over 250 markets throughout the state get that access,” added Bourque.

Even so, many consumers are slow to realize their benefits can be used at farmers’ markets, and when they do know, they often don’t know which markets accept them. Which is where the finder comes in.

“The data was not aggregated in any one place previous to the finder,” said Brinkman. “The California Department of Food and Agriculture does not track which ones have EBT access.” Added Bourque, “And while the United States Department of Agriculture compiles a list, it’s self-reporting,” he said, meaning as a result, the information isn’t the most up-to-date.

The finder also has a call-in feature, in which potential customers who do not have either internet access or a smartphone can receive a text message with the information about the market closest to them.

“One key element of this was overcoming the digital divide,” said Bourque. “Mobile phones are increasingly accessible to low-income folks, and while we developed the text-back service as well, we learned through a survey that the mobile application got the most use. Now the ongoing challenge is keeping the data current. We have interns checking in with all market associations to make sure they’re accurate, and we also depend on users to let us know when something isn’t right.”

I gave the tool a try and learned that in addition to the Temescal Farmers' Market which I go to regularly, there are several much smaller markets in my Oakland neighborhood I wasn’t aware of, all of which accept CalFresh benefits.

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Berkeley's Ecology Center Creates Farmers' Market-Finding Tool