Wholesome Wave Foundation Makes Healthy Food More Affordable

Rising food prices make it difficult to buy healthy food items. It becomes even tougher when families are depending on food stamps to get by.

Fortunately, organizations like the Wholesome Wave Foundation are looking for ways to make healthy food more accessible to people in need.

Founded by Chef Michel Nischan, the goal of Wholesome Wave is to help nourish neighborhoods by supporting the production and access to healthy and fresh locally grown food items. By doing so, the programs of Wholesome Wave Foundation will not only help feed the hungry, but also help generate an economic stimulus for local communities.

Wholesome Wave and the Food Stamp Program

To see how Wholesome Wave achieves its goals, it’s best to look at its core Nourishing Neighborhood Program: the Double Value Coupon Program. As the name suggests, the program doubles the value of Federal Food Stamps when the beneficiary purchases healthy foods from participating Farmers’ Markets nationwide. The added benefit becomes an incentive for consumers to shop for healthy food in local markets. As a result, consumers are able to eat a healthier diet while local farmers earn more revenue.

The concept of the program improves the effectiveness of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Farmers Market Nutrition Programs (FMNP) and the Senior FMNP. 
So far, there are currently 60 markets located in 12 states (California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, D.C.) that participate in the Double Value Coupon Program.

Sign up on the box at the right for food stamp application guidelines, contact information for your state plus other options for financial help in your city.