If you have a remaining balance on your SNAP card, we will always take those benefits and match them with additional dollars, up to $25 a day! Visit the Market Office window (across from the live music stage at the entrance to the covered area) to hear more about using your benefits at our Market and our Matching Program. We're also introducing two new programs to ensure you and yours get the nutrition you need through these uncertain times:
First up, every open Market day in November and December (that's every Saturday and Sunday), you can enter our Market Token Raffle! Visit the Raffle Station near our Market Office Window to enter. We'll draw five random winners each day to receive $20 in Market Tokens; you can pick those up and spend them any time. The raffle's free to enter, you don't need to be on-site to win, and you don't even have to subscribe to this newsletter to qualify (tell your newsletter-averse friends!)—we need some kind of contact information to let you know you have extra grocery money!
Secondly, starting November 16, we're introducing Savory Sundays: essential cooking how-to's every Sunday at 11 am featuring affordable, simple, family-friendly recipes. Totally free to attend: all participants receive a plate and a take-home recipe, and the first 20 attendees receive a free goodie bag of ingredients! A huge thank you to Market Staff Nora for hosting these workshops—we hope to include more friendly, familiar faces in the mix through the season! Visit our events page to see more workshop specifics.
Some of our farms are hosting additional individual assistance efforts, so now's a great time to explore the space and get to know your local farmer. To paraphrase author Pearl S. Buck: perhaps the greatness of a civilization can be measured by how it treats its most vulnerable members; we aim to be great. While we hope these efforts help, we're continuing to identify ways to ensure Everybody Eats at Olympia Farmers Market, and we always appreciate your insight. Never hesitate to swing by our Market Office Window if you could use support with food assistance; whether that's information on community-wide resources or more details about our on-site programs, it's our honor to answer your questions.
In the meantime, as always, we encourage those who can donate to the Thurston County Food Bank! They are showing up for all of us—you can leave non-perishable goods in their food drop box on-site by our Market Office Window and learn more about the many ways you can support them here.
Thank you to our farmers, food producers, and community members who are committed to ensuring Everybody Eats at Olympia Farmers Market! And thank you, dear reader, for eating with us!
