farmers market bingo
We love bingo! These days you can find us at local senior centers playing Farmers Market Bingo. At the Market, we see it is a great way to engage seniors and teach them about nutrition, purchase options and seasonal items at the Market. We've even found a way to work in a few low impact exercises to keep everyone on their toes. It’s all a part of our conditional cash transfer program MarketMatch. We combine nutrition education, games and field trips to the Farmers Market with financial incentives to increase voucher redemption of the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) to advocate for increased SFMNP state funding.
How does it work?
Seniors who receive SFMNP are eligible to join the CBT club and receive $20 in crescents (CCFM's wooden token currency) if they complete a series of conditions. These conditions include: (1) Playing Farmers Market Bingo with CCFM staff at their senior center; (2) Visiting the Crescent City Farmers Market for a "Meet Me @ the Market" guided tour and a chance to spend their FMNP coupons; and (3) Spending all $24 worth of SFMNP coupons before Nov. 30th. If all three conditions are met, the value of the SFMNP program to the participating senior is doubled; instead of $20 in vouchers the participants will receive $24 in vouchers plus $24 in crescents for a total of $48 to spend at the Market.
Farmers Market Bingo sessions began at the end of September 2008 and the first group of senior centers visited the market Tuesday, October 7th. About 60 seniors came through the market that day and 25 seniors redeemed their empty FMNP booklets for CBT. Here you can see a group of seniors playing Farmers Market Bingo – looks like they are doing the Pickle Punch exercise! Questions? Contact us online or call us at (504) 861 4488.