ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – Congressman Ben Cline made the trip to Roanoke Thursday afternoon to see Feeding Southwest Virginia’s mobile marketplace in action.
“They have created this mobile marketplace for healthy produce, something I’ve been advocating for many years since I was in the state house, when I worked with First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe, Terry McAuliffe’s wife, to create a tax credit for farmers to donate their produce to food banks,” said Cline.
Cline was happy to be able to shine a spotlight into the partnerships that make all this work possible.
“That effort is requiring ingenuity and creativity from federal, state and local officials, nonprofits, churches, you name it, it’s a community effort and they are doing a great job.”
“These relationships are important. Some of our new work is getting our neighbor center conversations with our elected officials as you see here today, all the other collaborative partners. Learning from our neighbors, what their challenges are and then being able to figure out a way to work together to solve them,” said Pamela Irvine, president and CEO of Feeding Southwest Virginia.
The mobile marketplace allows people to use SNAP and EBT benefits to receive fresh produce and other items.
“Hear today our farmers market purchases that we purchase locally from farmers, they can double their SNAP benefits here today by purchasing here, as well as the other groceries. That’s extremely important, SNAP is important, food banks can’t do it all,” said Irvine.
Cline said he will continue to be an advocate for these types of programs moving forward. For more information on Feeding Southwest Virginia’s mobile marketplace, you can find its website here.
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