Community Supported Agriculture: Accepting SNAP Payments

Participating in a community supported agriculture (CSA) share is one way for individuals with low income to use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in buying local, seasonal fruits and vegetables. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (USDA FNS) authorizes businesses to accept SNAP benefits, including direct marketing farmers and nonprofit food buying cooperatives operating a CSA. SNAP is the largest federal nutrition assistance program, formerly known as food stamps. Eligible individuals and families use an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, similar to a debit card, to purchase eligible food at SNAP authorized vendors. In Utah, the EBT card is known as the Horizon EBT Card

Fostering Community Supported Agriculture in Utah

This curriculum contains seven modules that describe the fundamentals of CSA, CSA marketing and outreach, CSA management, CSA pricing, CSA crop planning, legal concerns for CSA operations, and additional resources

Community Supported Agriculture: Participating in a Share

Community Supported Agriculture is a farming practice that provides a direct link between the community and the grower. Shareholders purchase a share of the CSA and receive produce at incremental time periods, generally weekly. Barriers and benefits to becoming a shareholder vary. Potential benefits include access to local, fresh produce free of preservatives and added hormones, and supporting diversified agriculture. Some potential barriers include the seasonality of production, a smaller variety of product, and the upfront cost of shares

Community Supported Agriculture: Starting and Managing Your Operation

This fact sheet gives tips for starting a community supported agriculture operation, including finding land in Utah, determining share size and season, distributing shares, packaging shares, record keeping, and finding financing

Community Supported Agriculture: Definition, Benefits, Barriers, and Resources for Growers

This fact sheet describes what community supported agriculture is, types of models, benefits, barriers, and CSAs in Utah

Community Supported Agriculture: Pricing

A Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation requires financial knowledge and planning This fact sheet can help you through the financial process by explaining how to develop a budget, how to price your CSA share with different pricing strategies, and payment options

Community Supported Agriculture: Legal Concerns

As with all businesses, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) growers may experience legal concerns. This fact sheet will walk growers through certain steps that may be taken to minimize the liability of your CSA operation and manage possible risks

Community Supported Agriculture: Marketing & Outreach Strategies to Encourage Membership

When you market your community supported agriculture (CSA) operation, you should consider the best communication tools to delivering information to potential and current shareholders, engaging your shareholders, and getting feedback. This fact sheet will provide tips on how to do so

Community Supported Agriculture: Crop Planning

A key component to a community supported agriculture (CSA) operation is successful crop planning. Crop planning can greatly improve CSA performance by taking into account seasonality, planting schedules, appropriate crops, etc. This fact sheet will help you learn more about the components of an effective crop plan and how to use one in your CSA operation

Building Engagement in Facebook: A Case Study with Utah State University Extension Sustainability

In order to stay relevant in an online world, Extension must properly use social networking platforms to effectively reach diverse audiences regarding agricultural and natural resource issues. However, few studies have focused on how Extension uses Facebook to effectively accomplish its goal. This study’s purpose was to explore how Utah State University Extension Sustainability uses Facebook to engage followers. The researchers conducted a quantitative content analysis of 504 messages posted to the USU Extension Sustainability Facebook page. Graphics and links were the most common post characteristics used by the organization. Text-only posts and posts containing videos were utilized the least. Food was the most common area of sustainability discussed on the page. Posts containing videos, shared content, or that tagged other Facebook pages in messages experienced statistically significantly higher user engagement than posts without those characteristics. Posts containing hashtags experienced statistically significantly lower engagement. Neutral sentiment appeared in the majority of posts. Additionally, information seeking was the most dominant communicative function among the posts. Neither the type of sentiment nor communicative functions were significantly connected to engagement. Future research should determine changes in knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behavior as a result of exposure to, and engagement with, the Facebook page. Additionally, a qualitative study determining consumers’ attitudes toward Facebook content can provide a deeper understanding of the audience’s thought processes and content preferences. Page administrators should craft engaging content that builds community among followers