The New York Botanical Garden in Fordham is the sole NYC recipient in New York State's fourth round of the Farmers' Market Resiliency Grant Program — $29,974 to staff EBT stations and run community outreach. The FreshConnect Checks Program also picked up an 18% budget increase statewide.

The New York Botanical Garden in Fordham, the Bronx, is the sole New York City recipient in the fourth round of New York State's Farmers' Market Resiliency Grant Program, announced July 9 by Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball. The Garden was awarded $29,974 — out of $750,000 distributed to 10 organizations statewide — to staff electronic benefit transfer stations and run promotional campaigns and community outreach at its market.

The program, first authorized under Governor Kathy Hochul's 2022 State of the State, targets infrastructure upgrades, marketing, and food-system resilience across the state's roughly 600 farmers markets, farm stands, and mobile markets. This fourth round went entirely to organizations outside New York City except for the Garden.

Commissioner Ball, in the July 9 release, framed the program's dual purpose as boosting demand for New York agricultural products while expanding fresh-food access in communities that rely on benefit programs. The FreshConnect Checks Program — available at participating farmers markets statewide and which matches every $2 in SNAP spending at a market with $2 in additional checks — also received an 18 percent budget increase in the current state budget, climbing from $3.8 million to $4.5 million.

The grant positions one of the Bronx's most prominent public institutions as a food-access node, adding staffed EBT infrastructure to a market that serves a borough where SNAP participation rates run among the highest in the city.