Farmers to Families Act: $25 Million Annually to Connect Local Food to WIC and Senior Nutrition Benefits

The Farmers to Families Act is essentially a major upgrade for how federal nutrition money—specifically WIC (for women, infants, and children), FMNP (WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program), and SFMNP (Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program)—connects with local food producers. The core idea is simple: make it easier for people using these benefits to buy fresh, local food directly from farmers, and make it easier for farmers to accept that money.

It does this primarily through two mechanisms. First, it authorizes $25 million annually through Fiscal Year 2028 for a new grant program (Sec. 1). These grants go to state agencies and organizations like nonprofits and co-ops to support direct sales. This means funding incentives, like matching dollars or bonuses, when WIC participants buy fruits, vegetables, or even meat and dairy directly from a local farm. Crucially, the grants can also cover the costs for farmers—technology, training, and transaction fees—to accept these benefits, which is a huge hurdle for small producers right now.

EBT Goes Local: The 18-Month Clock

The most significant change for participants is the mandate to modernize payment systems. Currently, using WIC and FMNP benefits can be complicated, often relying on paper vouchers. This bill requires that within 18 months, State agencies must ensure that both cash-value benefits and coupon funds are accessible via the existing Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card system (Sec. 2). Think of it like this: your benefit money for milk and eggs, and your separate benefit money for farmers market produce, must now both be usable on the same card.

This change isn't just about convenience; it expands where you can shop. The bill explicitly allows participants to use these funds to buy fresh, local, nutritious, unprepared foods, including pre-order boxes (like a CSA subscription) from a “covered agricultural entity.” This includes food hubs, farmers markets, and individual farmers. For the parent juggling work and childcare, this means potentially picking up a pre-packaged box of local produce rather than having to navigate a busy market.

Less Red Tape, More Tech Support

For the farmer, the bill tries to cut down on bureaucratic headaches. It requires the USDA to create a single online portal within 90 days where farmers can apply to get authorized to accept WIC and FMNP benefits (Sec. 4). Right now, navigating those separate authorizations can be a nightmare.

Furthermore, the bill establishes a Technical Assistance Center (Sec. 5). This center will be responsible for helping farmers and market managers understand the new rules and, critically, how to accept EBT payments. This is where the rubber meets the road: the bill mandates that the Secretary establish a list of qualified, single-device payment processors for CSAs and farmers, meaning small operations won't have to string together multiple pieces of hardware just to process a single transaction.

The Trade-Offs: Who Pays and Who Hustles?

On the benefit side, this is a clear win for low-income families, providing better access to high-quality, local food, and a definite boost for small and mid-sized farms looking for stable, direct sales channels. The $25 million in annual funding is a direct subsidy to make that connection happen.

The challenges, however, land squarely on State agencies. They have just 18 months to overhaul their EBT systems to handle these new coupon funds (Sec. 2). Upgrading state-level IT infrastructure is rarely fast or cheap, and while the bill authorizes funding for the grant program, it doesn't explicitly fund the state's mandate to upgrade their EBT systems. State agencies will need to move quickly, and taxpayers will shoulder the cost of the new $25 million annual grant program.