CLEVELAND — The City of Cleveland is launching the Produce Perks Pilot Program to provide low-income Cleveland families with free fruits and vegetables from the West Side Market.
Food Access Raises Everyone (FARE) will launch the pilot program in partnership with the City of Cleveland and Produce Perks Midwest to increase access to fresh and healthy food and help support vendors at the market.
The program will provide TANF ( temporary assistance for needy families) eligible families $240 in free fruit and vegetable coupons to spend at participating producer vendors at the West Side Market on or before June 30, 2022.
“We are excited to bring the Produce Perks pilot to the West Side Market and expand access to nutritious fruits and vegetables at no cost to families,” said Mayor Justin M. Bibb. “Increasing food access programs is a priority for my administration and we are grateful to FARE, Produce Perks Midwest and the participating vendors for making this initiative possible.”
FARE will be at the market regularly to distribute coupon booklets and assess eligibility.
All produce vendors at the market can participate. The vendors who are participating will display signage indicating that coupons can be used with that vendor.
Current participating vendors include:
- A-1 Quality Produce
- A & J Produce
- Angelo Produce
- Boutros Brother Produce
- Christiano Produce
- Ehab Produce
- Greg's Produce
- Habib's Produce
- Harb's Produce
- Lucas Produce
- Luca's Produce
“I'm glad we will be able to provide produce to families in need and I hope this program will help people see how the West Side Market can be a part of their daily shopping habit," said Tom Boutros, owner of Boutros Brothers Produce.
The city of Cleveland said vendors will be reimbursed by FARE for the value of the coupons.
The Produce Perks Pilot is supported by TANF funding from the State of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services.
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
