“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” said Jan Goranson, standing at her family’s booth at the Portland Farmers Market Saturday morning. “That’s how it was. It was really hard.”
Goranson Farms, based in Dresden and farmers who sell at markets across the state, ran into problems this summer with an electronic payment system they use to sell their fresh fruits and vegetables to people who receive certain government assistance benefits. The app has a cumbersome verification system and often kicks out or locks out users, Goranson explained. Sometimes it displays an error message saying the person isn’t eligible, even though they clearly are, Goranson added. And when the payment app doesn’t work, farmers and customers are left without good options.
In 2022, Maine moved to Farmers Market Nutrition Programa food assistance program for people under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), to an app-based digital currency. program helps low-income households buy fresh produce, but the Merchant Link app that farmers must use processed payments smoothly only about half the time this summer, according to feedback Jimmy DeBiasi, executive director of the Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets, has received from farmers.
“It’s these apps that are totally failing right now,” DeBiasi said.
What should be a 30-second payment transaction can turn into an awkward situation that can take even longer to resolve and sometimes ends with farmers giving away their food for free, DeBiasi said.
At Goranson’s booth, other people in line have sometimes offered to pay when they noticed the difficulties. “This generosity is incredible,” Goranson said, but added that her family has also given away food. Sometimes they take down the person’s information and try to get technical support later because their booth isn’t staffed enough to spend 10 minutes on a transaction, she explained.
Farmers can choose whether to participate in the program to receive WIC payments. Goranson said she believes more farms would participate if there weren’t such “electronic chaos.” Christine Pompeo, whose Fresh Start Farm is based in Falmouth and also has a booth at the Portland market, said she won’t participate next year if the problems continue.
Although WIC is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, federal funds are distributed to each state to implement the program. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention operates the local WIC Nutrition Program.
The Maine CDC declined to be interviewed for this article, but wrote in a statement that the app works for the majority of farmers and that “it is important to the department to ensure that WIC participants continue to have access to healthy, locally grown foods at farmers markets across the state of Maine.”
More than 18,000 WIC participants have redeemed benefits at Maine farmers markets so far this year, more than any previous year at this point in the season, the statement said. However, the Maine CDC added it is working with the app provider to resolve issues “as quickly as possible.”
Solutran, the company that developed the app, told the Maine Morning Star that it was aware of the issue and was working to fix it as quickly as possible.
DeBiasi said the Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets has reached out to U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee and the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. A spokesperson for her office told the Maine Morning Star the congresswoman is concerned and is working to get more information from the USDA.
The switch to digital was a national effort, driven by the American Rescue Plan Act 2021 to modernize WIC programs to increase participation and benefit utilization. States were offered federal grants to purchase mobile software that would allow people to access their benefits at farmers’ markets.
DeBiasi said he cannot imagine the problem being resolved by the end of this summer market season, but hopes funds can be made available to compensate farmers for lost revenue.
While he would like to see an improvement to the “flawed, problematic app,” DeBiasi said it raises a more fundamental question: “Do we need a technical solution for this Farmers Market Nutrition Program, or could we rely on an improved, guaranty-based program?”
If you ask Pompeo and Goranson, the old voucher system was better and more efficient.
