Oct 14, 2026 · 15 min · 11 segments
Join host Lee Henrikson and her guest, Brandi Jo Nyberg, the Mat-Su Community Farmers Market’s manager. Listen as they discuss the benefits of eating and buying locally. The Matanuska Community…
Are there other programs that you mention? Do you do any other programs that help people who might need a little more help buying food?
A lot of our seniors get their Farmers Market Nutrition Program vouchers, and so do WIC recipients, and these are vouchers that can only be spent at the farmers market.
And our market and Bush's Bunches are the two places that I know of that can accept those vouchers.
So all of our produce vendors are certified with the state department to accept those vouchers, and so that's another program that we do.
And then we also operate our own farm to food bank program, and the market and market vendors participate in one with Alaska Pacific University's Tilth program, where basically both programs allow the purchase of, like, fresh, unprocessed produce and seafood and meat and eggs.
And then all that stuff just gets taken straight to the food bank so that, again- The food is accessible to everyone.
I met a young man who was, who worked at APU this summer, who h- his job was the day aft- I think it's the day after the, the market, he takes stuff to the food banks.
We work really closely with the, the TILS folks at APU, and they've been very helpful.
So we have our own farm to food bank program, and as, as you mentioned, I am a farmer.
So I stay really busy between running the farmers market and operating my own farm, and James has been taking a lot of our donations for us, which makes me more available to do the market bookkeeping or work on my own farm.
Are there other programs that you mention? Do you do any other programs that help people who might need a little more help buying food?
A lot of our seniors get their Farmers Market Nutrition Program vouchers, and so do WIC recipients, and these are vouchers that can only be spent at the farmers market.
And our market and Bush's Bunches are the two places that I know of that can accept those vouchers.
So all of our produce vendors are certified with the state department to accept those vouchers, and so that's another program that we do.
And then we also operate our own farm to food bank program, and the market and market vendors participate in one with Alaska Pacific University's Tilth program, where basically both programs allow the purchase of, like, fresh, unprocessed produce and seafood and meat and eggs.
And then all that stuff just gets taken straight to the food bank so that, again- The food is accessible to everyone.
I met a young man who was, who worked at APU this summer, who h- his job was the day aft- I think it's the day after the, the market, he takes stuff to the food banks.
We work really closely with the, the TILS folks at APU, and they've been very helpful.
So we have our own farm to food bank program, and as, as you mentioned, I am a farmer.
So I stay really busy between running the farmers market and operating my own farm, and James has been taking a lot of our donations for us, which makes me more available to do the market bookkeeping or work on my own farm.
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