Ashmont is a food desert; our district has 0 grocery stores. Families rely on corner stores or go outside the community to access produce, meats, dairy, and dry goods.    This is a big ask when we have more and more people moving into the community that rely on public transportation. The Ashmont Farmers Market helps fill the void by providing the community with access to affordable local produce, bread, dry goods, meat, and dairy that is within walking distance, we have a large Vietnamese/Chinese demographic, and our market is the only location in Ashmont where they can find culturally appropriate produce.  The community has been supporting the market since its inception in 2008, and we here at Greater Ashmont want to improve the need to serve the community better; with the funds, we would be able to increase the number of market dates from 16-20 we would be able to hire a market assistant who would help tremendously with all of our day of market logistics.  As you may know, the SNAP emergency funds expired at the beginning of the month; this will significantly impact the families that shop at our market. We are brainstorming a SNAP match system and would like funding to help support that programming. And we have also been thinking of ways to provide families who use SNAP/HIP at our markets with a snap match program.