New Bedford's farmers market moves indoors for winter Saturdays, and SNAP shoppers can earn up to $80 a month

NEW BEDFORD New Bedford's farmers market has moved indoors at Buttonwood Park for its Saturday winter season, and SNAP shoppers buying local produce there can earn back up to $80 a month.

Coastal Foodshed, the South Coast food hub that runs the market, says it is open every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., November through May, inside the Buttonwood Park Senior Center and Warming House. On that schedule the next market is Saturday, Nov. 14. From June through October the market moves outdoors in the park on Thursday afternoons.

The market is a site where SNAP customers can earn benefits from the state's Healthy Incentives Program, known as HIP, all year, the hub says. Vendors also take cash, credit and debit, and the market adds live music and cooking demonstrations when it can.

How HIP pays you back

Anyone who receives SNAP is already enrolled in HIP, according to Coastal Foodshed's guide to the program. When a SNAP shopper buys eligible fruits and vegetables at a participating farmers market, farm stand or CSA farm share, HIP returns the same amount to the card right away, dollar for dollar, up to a monthly cap set by household size: $40 for one or two people, $60 for three to five and $80 for six or more.

The benefit refills on the first day of each month and does not roll over, so HIP dollars left unused at the end of a month are gone. The card needs a SNAP balance of at least 1 cent for the match to work. Shoppers swipe the card as usual and ask to use HIP, and most vendors apply it to eligible items on their own, the hub says.

HIP covers fresh fruits and vegetables, whole or cut, and canned, dried or frozen ones, including mushrooms, fresh herbs, nuts and applesauce, as long as nothing has added salt, sugar, fat or oil, according to the state Department of Transitional Assistance, and pickled fruits and vegetables count only when they are made without vinegar. Coastal Foodshed takes SNAP and HIP questions at 508-259-2647, and the state's DTA Finder lists other markets, farm stands and CSA programs that take HIP.

Fewer people in New Bedford and Fall River are getting SNAP at all. State figures show 11,360 fewer residents of the two cities got SNAP in September than a year earlier, as we reported Nov. 2.

The store at the Kilburn Mill

The hub's retail store, The Foodshed, stays open year round at the Kilburn Mill, 127 W. Rodney French Blvd., in space S1-57 on the first floor. It is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the hub says the side entrance on the south side of the building, near NB Antiques, is the most direct way in. The store sells produce, meat, dairy, eggs, seafood and specialty foods from its farm partners and takes cash, credit, debit, SNAP and HIP.

Online orders placed by 1 p.m. Wednesday can be picked up at the store on Friday from 2 to 5 p.m., or delivered on Friday between noon and 6 p.m. for a $9.99 fee in Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Fall River, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Rochester and Wareham. SNAP shoppers can order online and pay with their card at Friday pickup, but federal rules keep the hub from delivering SNAP orders to homes for now, it says.

Produce bags at more than 40 sites

For people who cannot easily get to a market, Coastal Foodshed's HIP Delivery Program brings bags of local produce to more than 40 community partner sites, among them housing authorities, social service agencies and senior centers, across New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton, Wareham and the towns in between. Each bag holds $40 worth of produce, and SNAP customers buy it with their benefits at their site on the same day and time each month, earning their HIP match on the purchase.

Since the program began in June 2024 it has delivered more than 7,000 bags to more than 740 SNAP customers at 41 sites, the hub says. Coastal Foodshed says it connects more than 80 local farms with South Coast residents and has sold and distributed just over $4 million in food since it opened, including just over $1 million sold to customers using SNAP and other public benefits and just over $1 million donated to the emergency food network.

A Dartmouth farm stand into late November

In Dartmouth, Brix Bounty Farm says its farmstand at 449 Bakerville Road stays open until about Nov. 22, with a few possible pop-up days into early December, and that the King Farm farmstand will again be open year round, using the blue shed from January through March. Brix Bounty grows every vegetable it sells, the farm says, and it lists registration for its 2026 to 2027 fall to spring CSA. For the King Farm stand's hours, the farm points shoppers to the King Farm website.

How we chose

This guide lists places that sell food from local farms to South Coast shoppers this winter and post their days, hours and payment rules on their own websites. No business paid to be included, and nothing here is a review. Market days and hours can change for weather or holidays, so check the organizer's page before you go.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.