Siskiyou Coop Accepts Food Stamps!

Our phone has been ringing off the hook since Monday. The cats are rattled and the kids are annoyed, but I am overjoyed. On Monday, a local TV station came out to Wolf Gulch to do a story on the fact that the Siskiyou Coop CSA will be accepting food stamps in two weeks. They broadcast the story twice that night and again the next morning. Since then, I have spent the greater part of every day on the phone with people interested in signing up.
This all started back in April when my friend Tracy Harding, who manages the Ashland Saturday market and is coordinating an effort to get local produce into school lunches, forwarded me an email about CSAs taking food stamps. It took me about a week to actually look into the prospect, and what I found was daunting. For one thing, the USDA requires a lot of paperwork, and since we are a cooperative, the paperwork was extra challenging. After getting photocopies of all nine Siskiyou Coop farmers drivers licenses and tax id numbers, I found even more difficult coop standards (I honestly can't remember what they were right now), so I tried another tactic. I applied to receive food stamps under Wolf Gulch Farm, instead of the coop, which immediately reduced the paperwork by at least nine-fold.
The next major hurdle came on June 4th, when we got a surprise inspection from a USDA representative. The rep was incredibly nice; he kept commenting on the beauty of the drive out here. Most people who come out here comment on the length and windiness of the drive, so I was especially appreciative of his enthusiasm. I was slightly amused when he walked down into our fields, looked all around and asked "where is the store?" Obviously, we don't fit the standard profile of a food stamp machine applicant. He needed to document our "inventory", so he took some photos of lettuce and carrots growing in the field, some apple trees, and some boxes of softening potatoes and apples from last fall (for home consumption only- I promise!) He seemed very jolly and pleased with his photos. However, when I spoke with the contact woman the next week, she was not pleased and told me there was no way she could license me with no inventory to speak of. I felt dejected, but still slightly amused at our attempt to resemble a "store". In the end, the contact woman worked with me and agreed to license us after I sent her pictures of our first CSA boxes.
The final step is getting the EBT Debit card machine, which will enable us to charge the food stamp recipients. More paperwork and few days wait, but it's on the way, and we'll be ready to use it in a week or so.
All of these headaches are forgotten as I speak to nursing mothers who don't want pesticides in their breastmilk, or elderly people who can't afford quality produce. I have also been deeply touched at the number of our regular CSA members who offered to lend a hand in distributing produce to disabled or elderly people who can't drive. I'll keep you updated on how it all works...