The Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) provides matching benefits for SNAP households who purchase locally grown produce from participating Massachusetts vendors. HIP vendors include farm stands, farmers markets, mobile markets, and CSA farm share programs. Learn more at mass.gov/HIP.
The majority of the newly selected HIP vendors are local, small-scale farmers who live in or have close ties to the communities and populations they intend to serve, while other selected applicants are local agricultural vendors with demonstrated capacity to serve high-need communities through delivery, mobile markets, and targeted outreach. Sixty-six percent of the selected vendors will serve families in a Gateway City, 49% of the selected vendors will serve multiple communities, and 23% will expand access to towns with no HIP vendors in 2019. The Department of Transitional Assistance received 90 applications in response to a Notice of Opportunity announced on June 11.