Double Your Food Benefits in Ohio with Produce Perks

If you’re shopping with SNAP benefits in Ohio, you need to know how to double your food benefits through the Produce Perks Program! This program can help you get twice as much food as you pay for when you shop at participating retailers.

In this article, we are going to talk about who is eligible for Produce Perks, how it works, and where you can go to double your SNAP food benefits. After all, there are over 100 participating locations that can help you double your SNAP food benefits!

What is Produce Perks?

The Produce Perks Program is a nutrition incentive program that is designed to help low income families get more healthy, nutritious food for their SNAP dollars. It is similar to the Double Up Food Bucks program, in that it provides a dollar-matching benefit to families who buy healthy food with their food stamps cards.

This program served over 34,930 families in 2022. It yielded over $3,962,076 in healthy food sales and benefited over 1,200 Ohio farmers and businesses. That is a huge impact for families, farmers, and the local economy!

Who is eligible for Produce Perks?

The Produce Perks Program serves all residents of Ohio who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs. P-EBT shoppers can also use this program. You just need to make sure that you are shopping at an eligible market!

If you shop in the Greater Cincinnati area, you may be able to use this program if you live in Northern Kentucky or Southeastern Indiana as well.

How does it work?

This is a dollar matching program. Basically, it means that you can get a free dollar for every dollar you spend. If you spend $5 on eligible produce, you’ll get an extra $5 for free so that you can take home $10 worth of produce.

There is a cap of $25 per day. That means that if you spend $25, you’ll get an extra $25 for a total of $50 in produce… but if you spend more than $25, you’ll still only get a $25 match.

This program works at both farmers markets and grocery stores. The process to use these benefits will depend on what kind of location you decide to visit.

Farmers Markets will require you to go the information booth before you can use Produce Perks. That’s because not every vendor at the market is signed up to process EBT payments, so it makes it easier to have on central location manage these benefits. You’ll swipe your EBT card for the amount you want to spend, and you’ll receive tokens in exchange for your benefits. Those tokens can be redeemed at the market’s vendors for any EBT-eligible item. You’ll also get an equal amount of Produce Perks tokens that can only be used to buy free fruits and vegetables at the market.

If you choose to shop at a grocery store, it works a little differently. You’ll shop as normal and receive up to $15 per day in dollar matching benefits. Some stores will just discount your purchase at the time of sale. Other stores may give you a coupon to redeem in the future. It just depends on the store’s policies.

Where can I use Produce Perks?

In order to use these Produce Perks benefits, you have to shop at a participating location. Here is a list of all the participating location, alphabetized by city:

Other Produce Perks Programs

The Produce Perks Program is organized by Produce Perks Midwest, a nonprofit organization that is fighting food insecurity in Ohio. Their other programs include Produce Prescription (PRx) and The Fruit and Vegetable Program.

PRx helps low income clients with diet-related diseases (including diabetes and obesity) get free fruits and vegetables every month. In order to be eligible, you have to be screened for food insecurity and work with your health care provider. The provider will issue monthly prescriptions that can be exchanged for free fruits and vegetables.

The Fruit and Vegetable Program is part of the state’s TANF initiative. It provides extra Fruit & Vegetable Coupon booklets to low income families who qualify for TANF benefits. You can exchange those coupons at certain retailers, including some home delivered produce box services.

Summary

The Produce Perks Program helps low income families in Ohio get free food when they shop with their SNAP benefits at a participating store or farmers market. You can get up to $25 per day in free food through this dollar-matching program. In order to get started, take your SNAP card to one of the retailers in this list.