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Market Bucks provide more affordable food to community members who don't fall within the federal aid programs that have strict eligibility requirements, but still lack access to local food. LEAP partners with community organizations to incorporate LEAP as a resource to provide food access to their clients.
By working through organizations rooted in communities, LEAP can provide fresh food to people who want and need it. Any community organization or business can partner with LEAP to provide Market Bucks to their clients.
A few examples of organizations and nonprofits purchasing Market and Harvest Bucks for their clients: CHIP of the Roanoke Valley, Casa Latina, and the Community Youth Program.
Thornfield Farm
Fields Edge Farm
Restoration Acres Farm
Blacksburg Bagels
The Professor’s Garden
Garden Variety Harvests
Monkey Business
Gracious Day Milling, LLC
Kind Baking Co
Piemonte Provisions
Cat’s Cooking Co
Rivenwood Gardens
Wingstem Farm
Virgo Pharms LLC
Osoro’s Kitchen
Back2Basics Cooking
Singing Spring Farm
The Shaving Cup
DancinDee Leather
Nest Art Studio
When your organization parterns with LEAP to provide your clients Market Bucks, you help to connect them to sources of fresh, local food and additional resources for affordable food access at LEAP markets.
To participate, your organization can request $10 Market Buck vouchers for your clients to redeem at LEAP markets. You can choose vouchers to be used for any SNAP-eligible food item, or restricted to fruits and vegetables only, depending on your organization's goals and funding. We can provide as many vouchers as you need, at any time. Vouchers can be stamped with an expiration date of your choosing, depending on your goals and funding duration.
To request vouchers, please email LEAP's Food Access Manager with your request. Please provide one week’s notice to prepare the vouchers. You can coordinate a time to pick up your vouchers at our office at 1027 Patterson Ave.
At the end of each month, LEAP will invoice you for the vouchers that were redeemed at our farmers markets.
Market Bucks can be redeemed at a LEAP Farmers Market operator’s table. The market operator provides clients with black tokens that are spent like cash at vendor booths. On the LEAP Mobile Market and in the LEAP Community Store, customers shop for food and pay for it with their Market Bucks directly. Customers who have SNAP, Medicaid, or WIC are eligible for LEAP’s Harvest Buck discounts on any amount they want to spend over their Market Buck amount.
Any organization or business can purchase Market Bucks for their clients. Organizations can also request a special visit of the LEAP Mobile Market. For example, a business could request that the LEAP Mobile Market set up in its parking lot for an employee resource fair. The organization would set aside a "Market Bucks" value for each employee and the employees would choose that amount of food from the Mobile Market at no cost to them. LEAP would then invoice the business for the total amount of purchases.
A business might do this to make an investment in local agriculture and small food-producing businesses, while also providing nutritious food for its employees or clients.