A Schenectady County regional farmer’s market held a community forum to discuss its uncertain future after its grant funding was put on hold by the federal government.
In addition to operating a farmer’s market, the Schenectady Green Market provides food accessibility services to residents of the county.
One of its flagship services is its food box program.
The Green Market purchases about $25 to $30 worth of food from its vendors, packages 6 to 7 items in a box, and delivers the food to families for just $10 a box.
Any family can sign up for the program, but priority is given to families with lower incomes. It currently serves roughly 30 families a week.
Amira Singletary is a 50-year-old mother who benefits from the service.
“Not for nothing, they’re not just a food market, they’re a little bit of sunshine in your day. I had two total knee replacements, I couldn’t go outside for months, they delivered food to my house. Not only did they deliver food to my house but they delivered food with love,” she said.
Now, a pause in federal funding has placed a gray cloud over what Schenectady Green Market’s food box program and other services may look like in the future.
Cheryl Whilby is the Green Market’s Executive Director of Development and Finance.
Whilby says the organization was awarded a three-year $250,000 grant by the USDA in September that the market had been hoping to use to expand services, such as adding 10 more families to its food box program, creating a vendor success toolkit to assist the market’s vendors, and increasing the market’s capacity.
Whilby says the federal government under the Trump administration paused the grant funds in January.
“What comes up for me in terms of the loss here is the loss of sustainability. Being able to have three years of guaranteed funding means that we can think more deeply about what expansion could look like for our work,” she said.
Vice Chair of the Market’s board, Chris Longo, says as a result of the funding pause, the organization had to walk back many of the new projects it had planned.
“The new things to give our underrepresented vendors a chance to move up in this world, a chance to make their money with their own two hands. Gone,” he said.
Longo says the organization was planning to use the funding to hire a translator to help non-native English-speaking vendors fill out the Green Market’s application and grant applications.
“We’re a good market, we’re well attended, we’re profitable but we’re underrepresenting people in our own community because they can’t fill out a form and we just wanted to have the funding to bring on somebody who speaks this second language, who can help these folks and that’s what this money was going for,” he said.
Although the market has had to pause some of its expansion and implementation of new programs because of the federal grant pause, Whilby says the organization is still looking for ways to improve.
“We need to take the time and to step back and hear from community about what they want to see and that helps us drive our mission forward in a way that’s in alignment with what the community desires,” she said.
Singletary, the mother who relies on the food box program, said she was devastated when she found out the federal funds had been cut.
“To hear that they’re not getting what they need, means I’m not going to be able to get what I need,” she said.
The Schenectady Greenmarket can be found on Jay Street every Sunday from 10 am. to 2 p.m. during warmer seasons, and inside Proctors during the winter.
