11/07/2025
When we learned that SNAP benefits wouldn't go out on November 1, we dipped into our emergency funds and quickly made a crisis plan to help:
Anyone impacted by the loss of SNAP benefits could come to and receive $75 in Corner Market dollars to buy food.
That simple. And we would keep this up until USDA SNAP funds were released or we ran out of money.
We shared the plan in this newsletter on Thursday. On Friday, we posted it on social media. We had no control over where it may go or what that would mean.
Then we realized that all this sharing was generating donations. There was a balance happening here...
On Saturday morning, a line formed. We would hand out bags to 4 or 5 customers, then the next person in line would pull out a checkbook to make a donation. All day long we gave out tokens and received donations.
Everyone stood in the same line and we couldn't tell the givers from the receivers. Everyone was joyful & at ease. Stepping up to the table, a donor was just as likely to burst into tears as someone receiving tokens. There was a lot of emotion on both sides of the tables at the market on Saturday.
Between the Thursday announcement in the newsletter through that Saturday market morning we received $8,381.52 in online donations. During Saturday's market we took in about that much again.
On Saturday we gave out 153 bags containing $75 in tokens for food.
A bag every 1.5 minutes.
At the end of the market, our food vendors turned in their tokens for reimbursement via check, just like every Saturday. Except this Saturday we wrote checks totaling 7 times the amount of any week in October.
On Saturday, we welcomed 153 new customers to the market! Because of those new customers, in one morning, our vendors sold the equivalent of what many had hoped to make in all of November and December.
In the end, this isn't a story about charity. It's not just about giving. Or getting. It's about building a community that takes care of itself. A community that is healthy & economically resilient. That has your back when you need it. A local food system that we made together and can feed us all.
Interested in helping our neighbors? Head to cornermarketgso.com to donate. ❤️
photo credit Sayaka Matsuoka for The Assembly
