FULTON MARKET ASSOCIATION INC C/O STEPHEN C DIMA

Program #1 - Fulton Stall Market and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program This program operates the Fulton Stall Market, a year-round multi-vendor indoor farmers market offering a wide variety of healthy, affordable fresh seasonal farm produce and processed food products sold on consignment for small-scale local farmers and food producers directly to Lower Manhattan residents, workers and visitors. The market is officially designated as a Farmers Market by New York State, and in 2024 economically supported 115 local farmers and small-batch food processors, showcasing and selling their food products to consumers six days a week, thereby enhancing their brand visibility in Lower Manhattan and New York City and increasing their income from farm and food production. The market's producers included 50 family farmers and 65 food processors, primarily from NY State, including many women and minority-owned start-ups utilizing shared-use incubator kitchens. All need direct marketing outlets like farmers markets due to lack of the large product volumes to profitably market via traditional retail food stores. In 2024, the market operated on a six day a week schedule established during the 2020-2022 pandemic, when we functioned as a NYS designated Essential food source for Lower Manhattan residents and an economic lifeline for local farmers and producers. In addition to offering consumers traditional shopping, in 2024 the market continued to operate its year-round Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program established in 2017. This program enables consumers to purchase 12-week "farm share subscriptions" for a wide variety of fresh, high-quality locally grown and produced foods from selected farmers and producers. The CSA farm share options offered during each 12-week season (spring, summer, fall and winter), included vegetables, fruit, sprouts, eggs, mushrooms, cheese, dairy, bread, pasta, beef, chicken, pork, ocean seafood and aquaculture (trout). Both the indoor farmers market and the CSA program generated crucial income for the market's 115 local farmers and producers, helping them rebound from pandemic losses and increasing costs of production, including materials, labor, energy and transportation, by providing a significantly higher economic return from our direct-to-consumer sales. In 2024 the market maintained its status as a licensed Farmers Market retailer by USDA under the Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP), enabling SNAP participants who shop at the market, participate in the CSA Farm Share program and/or shop at the Two Bridges Youth Market (See Program #3) to continue to utilize their SNAP EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) cards to access fresh, affordable local produce and other nutritious foods unavailable at other retail food outlets in Lower Manhattan. In 2024 the market was approved for participation as a food retailer of New York farm and food products under the New York State Grown and Certified Program and the Taste NY Program, both operated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. Number of persons benefited: 115 local farmers and small-scale food producers; 10,000 residents, workers and visitors (est.) served by the indoor farmers market; 165 families in the CSA farm share program.

Program #2- Fulton Stall Market Two Bridges Youth Market This program supports a youth-operated outdoor farmers market (Youth Market) that we initiated in 2022 at 50 Madison St. in the Two Bridges neighborhood of the Lower East Side as a satellite of the Fulton Stall Market to provide low-income residents living in public housing with convenient access to fresh, organically grown, affordable produce, create opportunities for eight local teenagers involved in a youth development program and benefit two farmers by expanding their sales via an additional direct marketing outlet. Two Bridges Youth Market was developed in 2022 in collaboration with the Lower East Side nonprofit social service agency Hamilton-Madison House and two of the Fulton Stall Market's fresh produce farmers. In 2024 it operated every Sunday from May 26 to December 15 (31 consecutive weeks), offering a wide variety of fresh-picked locally grown vegetables and fruit for the community, including many low-income families and elderly residents of the adjacent NYC Housing Authority's Alfred E. Smith Houses (12 apartment buildings housing 5,000+ residents), and other nearby housing developments. As an authorized farmers market in the New York State WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) and the USDA SNAP program, the Youth Market was able to provide hundreds of local families, including many participants in the NYS Woman, Infants, Children (WIC) program and Senior Nutrition program, with convenient access to fresh nutritious local produce on a weekly basis. In addition, by participating in the NYC Department of Health's "Health Bucks" Program, the Youth Market was able to issue a 100% bonus for SNAP participants' use of SNAP EBT cards up to $10 per day in the $2 Health Bucks, thereby increasing their buying power, incentivizing shopping for fresh local produce and enhancing the participating farmers overall sales and income. The Youth Market was widely advertised in the Two Bridges community with flyers in English, Spanish and Chinese. On-site education in the preparation of locally grown seasonal fresh produce, including both culturally familiar and unfamiliar varieties, was provided weekly by nutrition educators from the NYC Department of Health's "Stellar Farmers Market" Program. Operating under multiple tents in front of Hamilton-Madison House's Community Center, the market was able to move indoors in rainy/cold weather. The market benefited from community outreach from Program #4 below which reached the entire residential population of the Gov. Alfred E. Houses projects (12 apartment buildings). Number of persons benefited: 100-300 consumers per week; 8 youth (market staff); 2 NY farmers supplying produce