Opinion: SNAP Incentives Don’t Match How New Yorkers Actually Shop – City Limits

“Updating these programs to reflect how people actually buy food would allow a promising idea to finally operate at the scale New York’s food insecurity requires.”

More than 1.7 million New Yorkers, or roughly one in five residents, rely on SNAP to afford groceries. In the Bronx, where participation rates are the highest in the city, roughly one in three residents depends on the program. At a time when grocery prices remain elevated, stretching those benefits further has become even more important. Yet many of the city’s nutrition incentive programs are built around a place where most SNAP users rarely shop: farmers markets.

That mismatch matters. Nationwide, roughly 80 percent of SNAP purchases occur at large grocery retailers, while farmers markets account for less than 1 percent of transactions. But in New York City, several of the programs designed to stretch SNAP dollars operate primarily within the farmers market system.

Programs intended to fight hunger should be built around where SNAP shoppers actually buy food. The city’s flagship incentive, Health Bucks, offers $2 coupons for fruits and vegetables that can be earned and spent primarily at farmers markets, farm stands, and a small number of direct-to-farmer sites. The program is well-intentioned and has clear benefits. But its structure reflects a food system that does not match how most low-income New Yorkers actually shop.

Today, just over 100 farmers markets and farm stands across the five boroughs accept Health Bucks. On paper, that sounds like a robust access network. In reality, it is a thin substitute for the supermarkets, discount grocers, and neighborhood bodegas where most of the city’s 1.7 million SNAP users buy food week in and week out.

Most SNAP households shop at supermarkets or neighborhood grocery stores where they can purchase all their groceries in one trip. Work schedules, transportation constraints, and childcare responsibilities often make multiple shopping trips unrealistic.

In effect, New York has built its SNAP incentives around farmers markets even though most SNAP shopping happens at grocery stores. Health Bucks highlights the gap. For every $2 a shopper spends with SNAP at a participating market, they receive $2 in Health Bucks, up to $10 per day, an incentive that can meaningfully increase produce purchasing power for those who can reach a market. City data has shown that markets offering Health Bucks see higher SNAP spending than those without the incentive.

But the program remains largely confined to the farmers market ecosystem. It does little for the parent in the Bronx, where SNAP participation is highest in the city, who shops at a neighborhood supermarket after a late shift, or the senior in eastern Queens who relies on the closest bodega because there is no farmers market within a reasonable bus ride.

The mismatch becomes even clearer when looking at scale. SNAP benefits issued to New Yorkers total more than $7 billion each year, making the program one of the largest anti-hunger investments in the city. Yet spending at farmers markets represents only a tiny share of those purchases compared with the supermarkets and grocery stores where most SNAP benefits are redeemed.

Programs like Health Bucks are a positive investment in healthy food access, but they operate within a relatively small market system layered on top of a much larger citywide need. None of this means farmers market incentives are misguided. Farmers markets support regional agriculture, circulate food dollars locally, and can increase access to fresh produce in some neighborhoods. Programs like Health Bucks should absolutely continue.

The issue is not that incentives exist—it’s that they are concentrated in places where many SNAP users do not shop. If New York wants nutrition incentives to reach more people, the next step is simple: expand them to where SNAP dollars are already spent. Supermarkets, independent grocers, discount chains, and neighborhood bodegas that accept EBT could all participate in produce-matching programs. 

Doing so would allow incentives to reach far more New Yorkers who rely on SNAP without requiring them to reorganize their shopping around a farmers market schedule. Such reforms would not mean abandoning farmers markets. Targeted incentives could still support local growers and community markets. But a modern incentive system should also recognize the realities of urban grocery shopping.

Right now, New York’s SNAP incentives ask SNAP users to adapt to the program. A people-first policy would do the opposite. If the goal is to make healthy food more affordable for the 1.7 million New Yorkers who rely on SNAP, incentives must be available where those New Yorkers actually shop. Updating these programs to reflect how people actually buy food would allow a promising idea to finally operate at the scale New York’s food insecurity requires.

Cameron Barr is a New York City high school student who attends school in the Bronx and researches food access policy. She created a website, snapsmart.org, which helps SNAP recipients navigate city and state incentive programs.