Food stamp recipients in New York State will be able to use EBT cards at farmers markets throughout New York for the rest of the market season, announced Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In a statement, Cuomo blasted the USDA for causing the problem by choosing a new vendor, with a new system, to process SNAP payments at the markets. “This is just another example of the Trump administration’s continued assault on the nation’s most needy.”
Cuomo’s announcement was the second major step taken to keep SNAP working at farmers markets. The problem arose when Texas-based vendor Novo Dia Group, which handles 40 percent of SNAP transactions at farmers markets nationwide, said it would shut down operations at the end of this month, leaving 1,700 markets with no way to process SNAP benefits. Novo Dia said the tipping point was the USDA’s decision to work with First Data, a giant in electronic payments. Backlogs in getting the new, mobile equipment to the markets would have interrupted SNAP recipients’ access. FERN and the Washington Post were the first to report on the looming disruption three weeks ago.
The National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs, an advocacy group, announced in mid-July that it would pay Novo Dia’s costs so that SNAP service would run through August. The USDA said its goal “is for the marketplace to independently adopt mobile EBT as a regular part of their business model.”
“While the federal government doles out a contract to an untested company using outdated technology, we will continue to protect not only our most vulnerable residents, but our hard-working farmers,” said Cuomo. The governor said that “with no replacement technology in place and no foresight by the federal government, both farmers and SNAP recipients would have suffered.” The New York agreement could be a model for other states, said the governor’s office.