SNAP-to-Cash: How food assistance vouchers were traded for cash at the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market - The Voice of San Francisco

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Heart of the City Farmers’ Market, in front of San Francisco City Hall. | Courtesy sfciviccenter.org

At the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market, Jessica waits in line. She is slouched forward in the characteristic fentanyl fold, supporting her weight by leaning heavily on a wire pushcart. At the front of the line, she produces her Calfresh EBT card. The farmers’ market clerk charges her card $30 and gives her paper vouchers — $30 in regular SNAP vouchers valid at the farmers’ market, plus an extra $60 in vouchers from Market Match, a program that describes itself as “California’s healthy food incentive program.” Ostensibly, this program subsidizes low-income recipients’ purchases of fruits and vegetables.

However, Jessica — wearing a puffy jacket and pajama pants, looking like she’s in her 50s but probably younger — is not here to buy fruits and vegetables. Instead of going to a farmers’ market stall, she takes them to a nearby group of older Cantonese women, their faces concealed behind surgical masks and sunhats, hovering a few yards away. Jessica gives her vouchers to one of these women, who counts the $90 in vouchers and gives Jessica $50 in clean green bills. Cash in hand, Jessica departs. The purchased vouchers are then turned in to the farmers’ market organizers, and reimbursed by check as though they had actually been received in legitimate transactions. The whole transaction takes place in clear view, only a few yards from the Market Match tent and the security guard.

Jessica is a composite character, not a real individual, representative of the many people we observed and interviewed who sell their SNAP vouchers. It’s easy to guess what they do with the cash. Multiple fentanyl addicts confirmed to us that they regularly get their drugs by selling SNAP at the farmer’s market. “If you want to buy drugs and not food, you can do it,” says one. We asked another addict if he buys snacks with the cash. “No. I buy dope, man.”

Fraudsters attempting to buy CalFresh vouchers from us. | Photos by investigative team

Transactions such as these were once extremely common, done in full view and with full knowledge of the market’s staff and security. Since March, when the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market learned of our investigation, their security guards now shoo away the professional buyers and the vagrants who are caught selling to them. The rate of these sales has fallen dramatically. The line to buy vouchers at the Market Match tent, which before would sometimes stretch around the block, is now substantially shorter and often completely absent.

Where does the money for these vouchers come from? One third of Jessica’s $90 comes from the United States Department of Agriculture via Calfresh, California’s name for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that operates within the state. Another $30 also comes from the USDA but through a more complicated route; the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program directs the USDA to allocate money to individual states, which California then gives to the Ecology Center, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that runs the statewide Market Match program, and the Ecology Center gives the money to the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market. The final $30 is only intermittently available. This is funded by the San Francisco Sugary Drinks Advisory Committee, which distributes roughly $11 million annually collected from San Francisco’s tax on soda. The committee, and sometimes other donors, intermittently provide funds to the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market, which is given as vouchers to Market Match recipients — many of whom immediately sell them for cash and often fentanyl — until the money runs out.

As of 2024, the Ecology Center’s Market Match program reimbursed $1.7 million to the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market, and $10.7 million to farmers’ markets throughout California. Since these were matching funds, we can presume Calfresh also reimbursed the same $10.7 million to California farmers’ markets including $1.7 million to Heart of the City. The sums are probably larger today. In addition, the San Francisco Sugary Drinks Advisory Committee provided $500,000 to the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market in the 2024–25 fiscal year. Much of this funding is legitimately used for buying food from farmers’ markets. However, the brazenness and scale of the fraud — enough to support multiple dedicated SNAP buyers who wait at the Market Match tent — suggests that a large fraction went to fraud.

A vendor redemption check from an honest vendor who redeemed a small amount of food stamp coupons. Other vendors are redeeming much larger amounts, including coupons that were traded for cash rather than food. | Photo...