Providing families with food vouchers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Adelante Mujeres is currently working to distribute vouchers for families to purchase local foods at farmers markets throughout Washington County. We manage the Forest Grove and Cornelius farmers markets, but we are also working closely with the other farmers market managers throughout the county to redeem these vouchers.

At Adelante Mujeres, we serve low-income Latina women and families, many of whom do not qualify for public benefits due to their immigration status. We are finding that they are falling deeper into economic and food insecurity.

Thanks to our generous donors and funders, we decided to offer the vouchers to support families, but also support small family farmers who are also taking a hit during the pandemic because of canceled contracts with restaurants or other institutions. Tualitan Soil and Water Conservation District has been instrumental in helping us launch this program by providing generous funding, coordination between Washington County Farmers Markets and the design and printing of vouchers.

The way the food vouchers work is that our program staff reach out to families, fill out a simple request form, then families are awarded a certain amount of vouchers based on the number of people in their household. They go to the market in their area and pick up the vouchers/tokens and they can purchase anything that you would be able to purchase with SNAP (food stamps) benefits (including fruits, veggies, eggs, beans, herbs, edible plant starts, etc.). For families who cannot leave their homes, there is an option to request a box of veggies to be delivered and we will honor these requests whenever possible.