A new law could soon have more Missourians on nutrition assistance going to farmers’ markets.

Language in House Bill 432 will bring the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) within the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program back to Missouri. This will allow those receiving WIC assistance to use vouchers at farmers markets.
Missouri previously participated in the program up until more than a decade ago.
The FMNP language was from a standalone bill (House Bill 652) filed by Representative Martha Stevens (D-Columbia), whose background is in social work.
She said initially it will be couched in the existing Seniors’ Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program in the counties that offer it.
The program will be maintained by the state Department of Agriculture, which must submit to the USDA by November an implementation plan. Stevens said it will likely be next year before WIC recipients in Missouri can get vouchers, as the program funding is grant based.