Publication:  AnnArbor.com

Congressman John Dingell, Oran Hesterman of the Fair Food Network and Amanda Edmonds of Growing Hope spoke Tuesday afternoon at the Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers Market to launch the Double Up Food Buck program in Washtenaw County.

As I wrote about in July, the Double Up Food Bucks program matches every food stamp dollar spent at a farmer’s market up to $20 per visit.

Congressman Dingell spoke in support of the program from his perspective, “as the sole remaining author of the three of us who introduced and moved forward with the food stamp bill back in the Eisenhower administration.” Our nation has been supplementing nutrition for low-income individuals and families for over 50 years, and our Representative was there at the beginning.

Currently, 12.9 percent of the U.S. population receives federal food assistance benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), historically and commonly known as the Food Stamp Program. Dingell outlined the scope of the issue for our state, reporting that, “Michigan now has more than 17 percent, 1.75 million of our people, … on food stamps.”