Illinois Farmers' Market Nutrition Program
The Illinois Farmers' Market Nutrition Program includes both the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (operated since 1995) and the Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (operated since 2000).
All New Farmers' Market Vendor Applicants must complete the following training as part of the application process.
Program Overview
WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program
The WIC Program is a USDA funded program that provides nutrition counseling and nutritious supplemental foods to low income, pregnant, breast-feeding, and postpartum women, infants and children up to age five.
The Illinois WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (WFMNP) provides participants in the WIC Program, with checks to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, and cut herbs at local farmers' markets and roadside stands. WIC participants receive these nutritious, unprepared, locally grown foods in addition to the regular WIC food package.
The WFMNP is intended to improve the diet of WIC participants by increasing the availability and consumption of fresh produce and use of fresh cut herbs, as well as provide an awareness of where farmers' markets and roadside stands are located. Farmers' markets and roadside stands offer a community resource of locally grown fresh fruits, vegetables, and cut herbs.
For the farmer, the program should serve to increase sales of fruits, vegetables, and cut herbs as well as increase the number of customers using farmers' markets and roadside stands.
Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program
The Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) operates much like the WFMNP, but the checks are provided to low-income seniors. Seniors are eligible to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, cut herbs, and honey. Low-income seniors are defined as individuals who are at least 60+ years old and who have household incomes of not more than 185% of the federal poverty income guidelines (published annually by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
Training Sections
In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.
Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.
To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USDA-OASCR%20P-Complaint-Form-0508-0002-508-11-28-17Fax2Mail.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant's name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:
1. mail:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or
2. fax:
(833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or
3. email:
program.intake@usda.gov
This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
