You may have already heard, but there are a few important-to-know changes to WIC at the farmers’ market this season.
FMNP benefits became available July 1st. This is the bonus nutrition incentive portion of WIC participants’ budget, only good for Maine-grown fruits and vegetables bought directly from farmers like you. This year, that benefit is $10 per participant over 12 months old. Although this is a big change from last year’s budget ($50 per person) we hope it will still connect more folks to the farmers’ market, where they can see all the amazing produce on offer and learn about programs like Maine Harvest Bucks.
The other thing to know is that if your customer’s purchase goes over their FMNP funds, it will automatically deduct from their regular (CVB) WIC funds. Where you may have customers who are unfamiliar with the app or new to WIC, this is an important point for them to consider. Of course, it’s not your responsibility to counsel people on how they choose to spend their funds, but we know that so many of you go above and beyond to help people, so we don’t want there to be any potential confusion.
Whenever you have a new WIC customer, it’s a great opportunity to be your market’s ambassador, develop new regulars, and keep the word-of-mouth momentum going. Many folks are visiting a farmers’ market for the very first time because of the bonus incentive. It’s a great idea to encourage them to visit the Info Booth if they haven’t already, to learn about other programs that may be available to them.
Maine WIC has a page for farmers here, with contact information for the MerchantLink App company: https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/population-health/wic/farmer/index.shtml
Maine WIC also recommends you log in using the website instead of on the app: https://s3merchantlink.com/Logon/Login?ReturnUrl=%2F#/login
For the Info Booths that are staffed by our employees, we’ll be reviewing and training on the participant education page in case you run into obstacles that cannot be dealt with in a checkout line: https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/population-health/wic/families/families-find-WICfarmer.shtml
For your reference, the WIC farmer training guide in PDF form is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KHsy4ojqeHSribQwL1yWJLbbW26OsvFz/view?usp=sharing
And just a reminder, MFFM does not run WIC or have any part in the program, but we will continue to do what we can to make the program sustainable for farmers’ direct sales. Thanks for supporting your customers with this important food access option. Let us know how things are going!