---
title: "A new LA program delivers the farmers' market to CalFresh recipients' doors"
description: "For Angelenos who rely on CalFresh but cannot easily get to a farmers' market, a Los Angeles nonprofit is bringing the market to them. Food Access LA has begun delivering boxes of locally grown produce to people's homes, paid for with food-assistance benefits and stretched further by a state matching program."
category: "Los Angeles"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/los-angeles
author: "Lucía Fuentes"
published: 2026-07-18T13:53:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-18T13:53:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/a-new-la-program-delivers-the-farmers-market-to-calfresh-recipients-doors
tags: ["food access", "calfresh", "farmers market", "los angeles", "nonprofit"]
---
# A new LA program delivers the farmers' market to CalFresh recipients' doors

For Angelenos who rely on CalFresh but cannot easily get to a farmers' market, a Los Angeles nonprofit is bringing the market to them. Food Access LA has begun delivering boxes of locally grown produce to people's homes, paid for with food-assistance benefits and stretched further by a state matching program.

Getting to a farmers' market is easy to take for granted, until a lack of a car, a disability or a long work shift puts one out of reach. A Los Angeles nonprofit is trying to remove that barrier by delivering the market itself.

## How it works

Food Access LA, which runs farmers' markets around the city, has launched a home-delivery service for people who use CalFresh, California's version of the federal food-stamp program. The organization assembles boxes of seasonal produce sourced from vendors at its markets and delivers them to homes in the service area, [LAist reported](https://laist.com/news/a-new-program-for-calfresh-recipients-brings-the-farmers-market-to-the-front-door). Customers pay with their EBT cards, the same way they would buying produce in person at a market stall.

The delivery program is starting small, built around the group's market locations, with the aim of growing as demand builds. It is aimed particularly at people for whom a trip to the market is a genuine obstacle: seniors, people with disabilities, and those without reliable transportation.

## Making the benefits go further

The service also plugs into Market Match, California's healthy-food incentive that matches money spent from food-assistance benefits at participating farmers' markets, effectively doubling a shopper's produce dollars up to a limit. Applied to the delivery boxes, that matching means a CalFresh recipient's benefits buy more fruits and vegetables than they otherwise would.

"If they want to get farmers market produce delivered and use their EBT that way, they should have that autonomy," Isabel Thottam, an organizer with Food Access LA, told LAist.

## Why it matters

Farmers' markets carry a reputation, not always deserved, as places for people with time and money to spare. Programs like this one push against that, treating fresh, local food as something that should reach the people who often have the hardest time getting it. For a city as spread out as Los Angeles, where a market a few miles away can be effectively unreachable without a car, delivery is not a frill but the whole point.

Angelenos who receive CalFresh and want to sign up, or learn where the service currently reaches, can do so through Food Access LA or at the group's market locations. Those not yet enrolled in CalFresh can apply through Los Angeles County's social services.

## Sources

- [A new program for CalFresh recipients brings the farmers' market to the front door](https://laist.com/news/a-new-program-for-calfresh-recipients-brings-the-farmers-market-to-the-front-door)