FOREST GROVE -- On a warm June evening, Delona Thies headed to Nicolas Amaro's stand at the Forest Grove Farmers Market and picked out a $3 pint of bright red Hood strawberries.
Next, she stopped by Aaron Nichols' stand and picked up a $2 bunch of rainbow chard.
Both items were free. Thies, 48, paid with five wooden tokens she received at the market's accounting booth after swiping her Oregon Trail card to use $5 in food stamps. The market provides $5 in matching money that can be used only to buy fruits and vegetables.
"We can afford to buy more fresh, local produce," the Forest Grove resident said. "Before, I'd save the fresh fruit for my son. I had to ration it, kind of, but I think we can afford to eat more of it now."
The program is part of a relatively new approach to answer a question: Does it work to pay poor people extra so they can afford to eat healthier?
The data -- and anecdotes from participants such as Thies -- seem to indicate that it does. And it probably won't be long before matching programs spread nationwide: The U.S. farm bill approved in February included $100 million over five years to implement nutrition incentive programs.
Public health and poverty experts have long struggled with the fact that the cheapest foods are often the least healthy.
"They're mass produced and are made from unhealthy ingredients," said Katie Furia, an outreach manager at Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. "When you're forced to make some pretty tough choices about just putting some food on the table, you have to get what's cheapest and what can fill your family."
So in recent years, farmers markets across Oregon have teamed up with businesses and nonprofits to start matching programs for food stamps recipients. The benefits, supporters say, are twofold: Poor people eat healthier while supporting local farmers.
"I believe it makes a difference, even if it is just $5," said Thies, who receives $348 a month in food stamps for her and her 16-year-old son. "An extra $5 a week is $20 a month. I never have enough to last until the end, so everything helps."
The need is certainly there in Forest Grove, a town of more than 20,000 nestled among the gently rolling hills of Washington County's farm fields. Forest Grove has a 19.6 percent poverty rate, which exceeds Oregon's 15.5 percent rate, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
About 792,747 Oregonians receive food stamps -- roughly one in five residents, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services.
The Forest Grove Farmers Market participates in the Double Value Coupon Program with Wholesome Wave, a Connecticut-based nonprofit that works to make healthier local foods accessible to underserved communities. The nonprofit reported in 2012 that 90 percent of participants nationwide said they had increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Wholesome Wave gave the Forest Grove market $7,000 for the program this year, market manager Kaely Summers said. The market also receives donations from local residents, churches and other groups.
Similar programs operate in Portland. The Portland Farmers Market's Fresh Exchange program, for example, gives food stamp recipients a $5 match at the King, Buckman, Northwest and Kenton markets.
About $26,000 is budgeted for Fresh Exchange this year, said Trudy Toliver, executive director of the market and its charitable arm, the Farmers Market Fund.
The programs fill a much-needed void for affordable, healthy alternatives, said Furia, of Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. Too often, she said, food stamps recipients buy "filler foods" such as ramen, chips or frozen foods that are high in carbohydrates and fat, and low in nutrition.
For the programs to work in the long run, officials will have to persuade people such as Kara Hall to change their diets.
Hall discovered the program when she visited the Forest Grove market on a recent evening. She signed up for food stamps this spring and receives $497 a month for herself, a 10-year-old daughter and 17- and 18-year-old sons.
"I'm a meat and potatoes person," she said. "I don't eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, but my son is trying to eat healthier. If I can bring him here and he can get local, fresh stuff, I think it's a good idea."
She bought some honey and bread with her food stamps, but pocketed the match tokens for next week.
"There are things here that look better than in the supermarket," said Hall, as she looked around before she left. "It smells good."
-- Yuxing Zheng