SDSU Extension and Buche Foods partner for affordable produce

BROOKINGS, S.D. — A partnership between SDSU Extension and Buche Foods is helping Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dollars stretch further. Double Up Food Bucks South Dakota will match SNAP dollars spent on eligible fruits and vegetables at participating stores and farmers markets across South Dakota. It became available on Aug. 7. Let s say you go to a Buche Foods store and you buy $10 worth of eligible fruits and vegetables. You can then use the benefits to get an additional $10 of fruits and vegetables for free, said Gemma Bastian, assistant professor and SDSU Extension nutrition and health specialist. It s not just limited to fresh fruits and vegetables. There are multiple options for utilizing this program. For this, you can double up fresh, you can double up canned, you can double up frozen, dried, as long as there s not added salts, sugar or any kinds of fats or oils, Bastian said. With the current grocery prices, Bastian said families in th