Young skiers enjoying a storywalk of "No Milk" by Jennifer Ericcson. Higley Flow, Colton, NY.

Images courtesy of Cathy Carr.

Get in the 2023/24 Local Food Guide!

It's time to get in the guide! GardenShare's 2023/24 Local Food Guide is open to all farmers, restaurants, and retail locations that showcase locally produced food in St. Lawrence County.

Did you know that 7,500 paper copies are distributed throughout the county - North Country 

This Week, hospitals, restaurants, schools, human services agencies, local businesses, and more? Furthermore, 2,500 copies are mailed directly to local food lovers!

We are mailing and emailing listing forms soon. If you don't receive one and would like to be in the guide, you can find fillable forms on our website.

Are you interested in listing or putting an ad in the guide? Email us at reiley@gardenshare.org or call (315) 261-8054.

COVID-19 SNAP Emergency Allotments to End in February

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, SNAP participants in New York and around the nation have relied on a temporary boost in benefits known as emergency allotments (EA). Emergency allotment payments are the difference between a household’s normal benefit amount and the maximum amount for their household size, with a minimum payment of $95. SNAP EAs helped many of those hit hardest by the pandemic put food on the table and continued to provide essential nutrition support during unprecedented spikes in the cost of food and utilities.

However, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 passed by Congress in December 2022 prematurely ends SNAP emergency allotments after February 2023, rather than continuing the allotments through the duration of the national public health emergency as originally intended. Starting in March 2023, more than 2.8 million SNAP recipients in New York will return to their normal benefit amount, with many seeing a substantial drop in benefits. The steepest cliff will be for older adults at the minimum benefit level who will have their monthly SNAP benefit fall from $281 to $23. This will be a sudden and devastating loss for individuals and families already struggling to make ends meet.

To learn more about these upcoming changes, visit the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Frequently Asked Questions about SNAP and COVID-19.

My name is Marli Thompson, I have been interning with GardenShare since June 2022. I'm in the last semester of the Masters of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics program through the State University of New York at Oneonta. I am completing a Community Health Intervention Program which is focused on increasing fruit and vegetable intake within our local communities. During the fall I collected data on the fruit and vegetable intake of participants in the Bonus Bucks program at GardenShare. Based on this data a need was shown for an intervention with a goal to an increase in fruit and vegetable intake. 

GardenShare and I will be hosting an online-only intervention from mid-February 2023 until mid-March 2023. This intervention will include a pre-test, three online sessions ranging from 30 minutes to an hour, and a post-test. The three online sessions are aimed to increase knowledge of fruits and vegetables health benefits, prime seasons, decreasing barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables including the GardenShare program, and lastly how to implement more into your daily lives. An educational handout will also be sent to all who participate. There will be additional giveaways for online participants that complete the whole intervention. 

If you are interested in this program or have any questions you can reach me at marli.thompson14@gmail.com or GardenShare at info@gardenshare.org or call

315-261-8054. I am personally reaching out to all participants in the Bonus Bucks program to gain participants in this intervention study. This study is entirely confidential and no identifiable information will be revealed to the public.