The SNAP token and incentive program is back at the Bath Farmers Market.

Both the market and Bath Freight Shed Alliance are co-sponsoring the program, which allows residents with SNAP benefits to receive $5 worth of tokens, and up to $15, with every purchase of $10 on their EBT card.

“People can come in and do most of their grocery shopping there and know that they’re getting healthy stuff,” said Joan Detel, a board member of the alliance. “And that’s part of the Freight Shed’s mission, which is to promote access to healthy food in the community we’re in and the communities we serve. So it sort of was a natural fit between the two organizations.”

While a SNAP program had been in place at the market for about two years through the efforts of Main Street Bath, the grant that supported the program eventually expired, according to Detel.

“They tried very hard to get renewal grants, but they couldn’t,” she said on Wednesday. “It was late summer, early fall that they just weren’t going to continue it any longer.”

As soon as the program ended, Detel said the community was “very upset.”

“Recipients were very distressed, and a lot of people were stressed for them. So it was on everybody’s mind at the market and at the Freight Shed Alliance,” she said. “There were so many people who just came to the market, customers of all kinds, who really wanted to get it back. They just believed that everybody should have access to healthy food.”

In addition to a successful trial run earlier this month, volunteers have also been recruited and trained to help administer the program every week, said Detel.

Pat Haag, a local volunteer, said there had been two new SNAP customers last Saturday who were “thrilled” to learn about the program.

“It was pretty exciting that the market was able to give them a little extra,” she said.

Haag also shared why she was passionate about the program.

“I’m very fortunate that right now I’m not on a really limited budget, but I have been at other times in my life,” she said. “So I feel that I have something to share from that experience — learning how to enjoy good food with little money. I’m just glad to be able to help more people do that.”

The Bath Farmers Market is open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 8:30 a.m. to noon beginning in May. The weekly market is located at the Bath Freight Shed on 27 Commercial St. For more information, contact Joan Detel at (207) 751-4075.

dkim@timesrecord.com

In Bath

• THE BATH FARMERS Market is open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 8:30 a.m. to noon beginning in May. The market is located at the Bath Freight Shed on 27 Commercial St.