One recent Sunday morning at San Francisco’s Heart of the City Farmers’ Market, stalls loaded with leafy greens, plump fruit, and fresh seafood were just steps away from dozens of people waiting in a long line. But these customers had a few more steps to take before shopping. They were waiting to pick up paper vouchers from a program that adds extra value to their state and federal food subsidy benefits.
Market Match isn’t a huge benefit per person; it only adds $30 of benefits per month for each recipient. But the program is a key component of San Francisco’s fight against food insecurity for its lowest-income residents.
President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which he signed on July 4, could upend the program and deliver a blow not just to customers but to farmers who sell their goods at the Heart of the City market, now in its fifth decade. The bill includes a $186 billion cut to the federal food assistance program SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
For now, the cuts will only target who gets benefits — not how much they get — by removing certain groups of people from the eligibility pool. Next year, states will have to take on more costs to replace lost federal funding, which advocates say could force more people out of the program or reduce the availability of benefits overall.
Effects of the cuts will ripple out at Heart of the City. Located in Civic Center, within walking distance of the Tenderloin and South of Market, the market serves a large low-income population. Its vendors process the most public benefit transactions of any farmers market in California: more than $2.4 million in 2024 and more than 1,000 transactions per day, according to the market’s executive director Steve Pulliam.
Because there’s no full-service grocery store in the area, the biweekly market functions like a neighborhood produce hub for residents, particularly elderly Asian Americans who live in Chinatown. About 25,000 of its customers per year use the Market Match subsidy.
SNAP — known as CalFresh in California, and formerly known as food stamps — supports nearly 110,000 San Franciscans, or 14% of the total population, as of May 2025. Recipients receive $10 to $300 monthly to purchase food, loaded onto an EBT card.
But the SNAP changes are hitting in a time of high food insecurity. In a 2023 report, the city’s Department of Public Health cited 2022 data showing that two-thirds of adults earning under 200 percent of the federal poverty level were food insecure, the highest rate since tracking began in 2001. Among those using local food aid, up to 83 percent still lacked consistent access to food.
SNAP already has work requirements, but the Trump bill expands them to more people. Other changes will shift more financial burden to states, add more administrative responsibilities to recipients, and shut out entire groups of people, such as immigrants and refugees, from the program.
“There’s just no way [food banks are] going to be able to make up this massive gap,” Itzúl Gutiérrez, senior policy advocate at the California Association of Food Banks says. “These are the biggest cuts that we’ve seen historically to the CalFresh program.”
Already the wait list at the SF-Marin Food Bank, the city’s biggest provider, stretches to more than 8,300 people.
At Heart of the City, the farmers are just as anxious about the potential fallout.
Low prices, high volumes
Most of the farmers at the market today were around before Pulliam took the reins 15 years ago. “There’s been marriages and babies that I’ve seen grow up in this market,” he says. Some farmers even hire unhoused people to help at their stalls.
Direct sales at farmers’ markets can be a big deal for these family operations. “When I go to a supermarket and buy fresh produce, about 15 cents of that dollar goes back to the farmer,” says Martin Bourque, executive director of the Ecology Center, the Berkeley-based sustainability nonprofit that runs Market Match. “Whereas at a farmers’ market, it’s above 90.”
The volume of sales also makes a big difference. “Any reduction in the number of people coming through to buy that food is really going to hurt them,” says Pulliam, noting that more than 34,000 customers showed up last month.
I try to preach that to people — this is the best deal going.
Steve Pulliam, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEART OF THE CITY FARMERS MARKET
Joel Aguayo of Castellanos Farms drives in from Tulare County, four hours away. EBT sales represent about half his weekly revenue, or nearly $7,000 a week, he says.
At his stall, some citrus is just $1 a pound, and grapes go for about $3 per pound. A decrease in sales will “definitely” make it harder for him to maintain affordable prices for shoppers, he says: “If you keep the prices low and you’re selling low quantities, that’s no money.”
Tony Mellow, owner of Mellow’s Farm and Nursery in Morgan Hill, has been at the market since its first day in 1981. During the summer, EBT purchases make up 65 to 70 percent of his Sunday sales — roughly $40,000 a month. He’s bracing for the impact of SNAP cuts, but says he’d lower prices if it meant helping his customers and clearing his stock.
“People have to eat something. I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Mellow tells The Frisc.
At other markets in the state, Aguayo charges more, sells less, and still makes comparable — if not better – profits with fewer employees and lower overhead. But the EBT-driven model at HOTC helps everyone, he says, and the farmers here have an unspoken agreement to keep prices low and steady.
“Good for the farmer, good for the people,” Aguayo says. “I don’t see… why the benefits are being cut, because honestly, it’s a good service.”
SNAP shifts
Currently, to qualify for SNAP, able-bodied adults aged 18 to 54 without dependents must prove that they work, volunteer, or attend school at least 20 hours a week. Otherwise, they’re limited to three months of benefits every three years.
New rules will expand these requirements to adults up to age 64, parents without children under 14, and other vulnerable groups: homeless people, veterans, and youth aging out of foster care. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the roughly 30 percent cut in federal funding will mean about 3.2 million fewer people enrolled in SNAP benefits in an average month.
States are still awaiting federal guidance on enforcement of the new rules, according to several California food policy advocates. A California Department of Social Services letter to county welfare departments advised that further details are forthcoming but gave no timeline.
California has relatively low SNAP participation rates compared to other states. About 30 percent of eligible people missed out on benefits in 2019. Among the elderly, roughly 81 percent didn’t receive benefits in 2018.
Bourque of the Ecology Center cites social stigma, translation barriers, and onerous paperwork — such as proving an exemption from work requirements due to illness or disability — as reasons for missing out.
The work requirements are also particularly challenging for unhoused people, who often lack stable access to transportation, documentation, or basic resources. “Many of those people on the street, in the state that they’re in, are not very employable” says Bourque.
SNAP will also undergo major structural changes starting October 2026 that will shift more financial responsibility to states. California will soon be on the hook for 15 percent of SNAP payouts, as well as 75 percent — instead of 50 percent — of administrative costs. And starting in 2028, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and trafficking victims will also lose eligibility.
“It’s unclear how the state will respond,” says Eli Zigas, executive director of the food policy advocacy Fullwell.
If states can’t backfill funding shortfalls, they may be forced to reduce benefits, tighten eligibility, lay off staff, or in extreme cases, exit the program altogether. Bourque believes that while rural states will likely be hit hardest, California’s own budget crunch could require tough choices next legislative session.
An estimated 12,000 San Francisco households will be affected by the SNAP cuts, according to Marchon Tatmon, associate director of policy and advocacy at the SF-Marin Food Bank.
Pulliam says that at Heart of the City, any reduction in SNAP will mean a reduction in available Market Match dollars — affecting both shoppers and farmers.
Market math
Market Match began in 2009 and is offered at more than 270 markets across California. Since its introduction in 2015 to Heart of the City, it’s been critical to the economics that make the market thrive.
Currently shoppers can get up to $30 matched per month. Though that’s less than other San Francisco markets, it helps sustain the program year-round. Demand is so high that for the past few years, the market has staffed four workers at the EBT tent, including three Chinese speakers, to keep the line moving.
Pulliam credits Market Match for helping keep farmers on during the pandemic. Lower-income people didn’t have the option of grocery delivery — and the Market Match program “skyrocketed” as more EBT shoppers came to the market to stretch their food dollars.
Aguayo of Castellanos Farms says many of his Tulare County neighbors won’t sell at Heart of the City, because they’re not interested in offering low prices, even at a high volume. “So whoever is there offering their products at a discount, honestly, hats off to them,” Aguayo says. “Because they actually care about that market.”
In 2024, the state nearly killed the California Nutrition Incentive Program — a key funding source for Market Match. But advocates fought back, and Market Match secured a record $35 million in state funding — enough to fully fund the program through 2027.
Pulliam isn’t sure how the coming months will shake out. “It’s hard for me to believe that a 30 percent reduction in SNAP benefits won’t affect us,” he says.
More recipients might seek out Heart of the City as one of the few places where their dollars go further. But enough cuts to the SNAP customer base could upset the economic equilibrium that keeps HOTC prices low and sales volume high.
“I try to preach that to people — this is the best deal going,” Pulliam says.
Still, as federal support erodes and eligibility narrows, a system built to stretch thin margins is about to be tested.