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When a person eligible for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) uses his or her SNAP Bridge Card to shop for food at a farmers' market, the amount of money that he or she spends is matched with Double Up Food Bucks bonus tokens.

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About Us

  • Are you a community agency interested in sharing materials and telling your clients, program participants, or partners about Double Up Food Bucks?  Contact us at info@doubleupfoodbucks.org.
  • Learn more about how to accept SNAP benefits your farmers’ market – A How-to Handbook.
  • Learn more about how to choose, buy, prepare, and store fresh fruits and vegetables.
  • Double Up Food Bucks is a project of Fair Food Network, a national nonprofit dedicated to building a more just and sustainable food system. 

Fair Food Network’s Double Up Food Bucks program provides incentives to encourage healthier choices for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, directly benfiting low-income families and local farmers.  

Our Goals

The program uses existing infrastructure - markets, produce, trucks, farm stands, food share programs, and the Michigan Bridge Card - to:

  1. Improve access to affordable, fresh fruits and vegetables in underserved communities
  2. Grow the local economy by supporting purchases from local farmers
  3. Shift public policy so that federal nutrition assistance programs address health, hunger, and nutrition and support a sustainable food system

The Double Up Food Bucks program is a highly successful, scalable model that encourages low-income consumers to leverage their federal food assistance benefits to purchase healthy produce, simulateously increasing the income of the region's farmers and making a positive impact on the local food economy. In 2012, participating farmers' markets recorded more than $1.9 million in sales from SNAP benefits and Double Up Food Bucks combined, with the money going directly in the pockets of Michigan growers and food businesses.

How Does it Work?

When SNAP recipients shop at a participating site, the amount that they spend on their SNAP Bridge Card is matched up to $20 per visit with Double Up Food Bucks, which can be used to purchase Michigan-grown fruits and vegetables.

Our History and Future Plans

Double Up Food Bucks began as a pilot project at five markets in Detroit in 2009.  Since that time, it has expanded throughout Michigan to 75 markets, plus two food share programs, three mobile food trucks, and a network of farm stands in Detroit, potentially reaching hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents and benefiting 700 local farmers in 2012.  Over 100 locations in Michigan will be participating in the program in 2013.

Double Up Food Bucks is demonstrating that a small incentive can change eating habits, poisitvely influence health and grow the econmoy.  

Who funds Double Up Food Bucks?

Double Up Food Bucks is generously supported by nearly 40 private and community foundations and corporations throughout Michigan and beyond, including:

Americana Foundation Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation Bank of America Battle Creek Community Foundation Bay Area Community Foundation Capital Region Community Foundation Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan C.S. Mott Foundation Erb Family Foundation Four County Community Foundation Grand Rapids Community Foundation Irving S. Gilmore Foundation The Jewish Fund John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Kresge Foundation Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) McGregor Fund Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Michigan Department of Human Services Michigan Nutrition Network New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Newman's Own Foundation Open Society Foundations Osprey Foundation Ruth Mott Foundation Saginaw Community Foundation Slemons Foundation Toledo Community Foundation United Way of Southeast Michigan United Way of Greater Toledo University of Toledo U.S. Department of Agriculture Utopia Foundation W.K. Kellogg Foundation Whole Foods Market Wholesome Wave Woodcock Foundation