A new program for CalFresh recipients brings the farmers’ market to the front door

A new program that gives Angelenos on food assistance the option to have fresh produce delivered to their homes has launched, serving a roughly 20 mile radius around the Atwater Village and Crenshaw farmers markets.

Food Access LA, a non-profit that operates a chain of farmers markets focusing on customers who rely on food assistance, is behind the new Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box delivery program.

Isabel Thottam, with Food Access LA, said she and her colleagues have spent the last three years or so working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other groups to get approval for the delivery program to accept Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT).

“What I’m excited about is just being able to give people that opportunity to choose,” Thottam told LAist. “If they want to get farmers market produce delivered and use their EBT that way, they should have that autonomy to make that decision,” Thottam, who directs the nonprofit’s EAT! Food Distribution program, said.

How it works

Food Access L.A. curates each box of produce from five to seven different vendors from the farmers market and takes on logistics of home delivery.

Organizers said they anticipate delivering 20 to 30 boxes from the Atwater Village and Crenshaw farmers markets every week and expect it to be a welcome option for seniors, people with disabilities or other groups who may have difficulties getting out in-person to a farmers market.

“You know a lot of people do come to the markets with the ... mindset of ‘farmers markets are inaccessible, they’re for rich people, they’re not for me,’” Miguel Ceniceros, senior manager of benefits and incentives at Food Access L.A., told LAist. “Our job is really to dispel those myths.”

A farmers market operated by Food Access LA.

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Courtesy Food Access LA

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‘A lot of uncertainty’ 

The new produce delivery offering comes at a time of substantial change and uncertainty for nutrition assistance programs nationwide.

That’s because the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed last July imposes funding cuts and new requirements for families trying to get help paying for groceries.

L.A. County could see more than 200,000 people at risk of losing their CalFresh benefits because of new work-requirement rules that went into effect last month targeting recipients like those between the ages of 55 to 64, unhoused people, and veterans.

“These changes are quite significant. Because our population of just those estimated impacted are way beyond some caseloads of other counties,” said Shawn Amiel, Division Chief with the L.A. County Department of Public Social Services. “And it could really contribute to the food insecurity of so many people.”

Amiel said she and her colleagues are working now to educate people on possible exemptions and what the new requirements entail.

In the meantime, Amiel welcomes opportunities like the new CSA box delivery.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as we enter these policy changes having to be implemented,” Amiel said. “So any additional assistance, any additional opportunities to kind of spread out these funds as much as possible should be taken advantage of.”