Sustainable Food Center

02/20/2026

When you give to SFC this Amplify Austin Day (March 4-5), your impact starts in the heart of Texas and grows to support fair access to fresh food and thriving farmer livelihood statewide. 🌱🌿

In 2012, we started our SNAP doubling program Double Up Food Bucks Texas (Double Up Texas) in Austin at a single SFC Farmers' Market location. Today, families with SNAP can double their SNAP benefits at over 100 participating locations in every region of Texas.

In the 14 years since Double Up Texas launched, we’ve built a statewide movement that is transforming Texas food for the better by increasing farmer sales and bringing high-quality produce within reach for more families.

Can’t wait to be part of Cultivating a Better Food Future? Read more about Double Up Texas and support SFC’s Amplify campaign today: https://bit.ly/4a6CSJm

02/11/2026

Bad Bunny did it for the (agri)CULTURE🌾On that note 🎵… Did you know SFC Farmers' Market are the only farmers' markets in Texas where families who receive WIC can TRIPLE their monthly benefits?

This Valentine’s Day, we’re hosting a special event at our Sunset Valley market to share more about the Triple WIC program. Join us for giveaways, free walk-up appointments from the WIC Mobile Unit, and details about Triple WIC.

Even if you don’t receive WIC benefits, come enjoy a market morning and learn how Triple WIC puts money in small farmers’ pockets and increases access to nutritious food.

02/10/2026

Happy ! We want to thank Black Men’s Health Clinic - BMHC, a key partner in putting Black history in context of present-day Black experience in What’s the Soul in Our Food?, our nutrition course for Black Central Texans. 💚

Understanding that history shapes a community’s lived experience with food is essential to making nutrition resources like The Happy Kitchen effective.

BMHC’s team is connected to the full scope of Black health, offering free comprehensive services from sickle cell trait testing to community groups that foster community connection as part of health and wellness.

We couldn’t do this work without leadership from the communities it serves.
Read more about BMHC at their website: https://blackmenshealthclinic.org/

02/06/2026

– Meet Erin, a single mom who uses SFC’s SNAP doubling program Double Up Food Bucks Texas (Double Up Texas) to buy MORE local fruits and veggies SFC Farmers' Market. 💚 “Double Up Texas helps me provide more fruits and vegetables to put on the table, to cook with my child, and to teach him how to eat nutritiously for the rest of his life,” Erin said.

Last year’s government shutdown, reduced funding for SNAP, and changes to SNAP eligibility make your support for food access programs and SFC more important than ever. When you support SFC this on March 5-6, you’re supporting our work making fresh, local food accessible while boosting small farmer income.

Can’t wait til Amplify Austin to support our work transforming the food system? Donate today: https://bit.ly/4a6CSJm

01/30/2026

🗞️SFC Receives Farm Aid Grant🗞️ Farm Aid, founded by Texas legend Willie Nelson, shares SFC's perspective that farmers play a critical role in producing food and stewarding the land. 🌱

With Farm Aid’s support, we’re continuing to champion small Texas farmers through:

Direct Farmer Support 🫱🏾‍🫲🏽 From connecting SFC Farmers' Market vendors with state and federal resources to providing guidance on selling farm goods wholesale in the Rio Grande Valley, SFC helps small farmers achieve their goals.

SFC’s Systems-Level Transformation♻️ At the state level, SFC leads Double Up Food Bucks Texas, which doubles SNAP benefits to spend on local food. Through Double Up Texas and WIC nutrition programs, we’re bringing fresh, local food within reach of more Texas families and directing state and federal dollars to small farmer pockets.

Thanks for supporting a Better Food Future, Farm Aid!

01/28/2026

Save the date! The biggest giving event in Central Texas is just around the corner. Support Sustainable Food Center (SFC) this Amplify Austin Day on March 4-5. 🧡

Your gift to SFC supports families facing food insecurity and the local farmers who feed us. With your support, we're expanding access to fresh produce for Texas families while also creating business for small-scale Texas farmers and boosting local economies. That's a WIN-WIN-WIN.

Can’t wait until March? Early giving is OPEN. Donate to SFC’s Amplify Austin page today: https://bit.ly/4a6CSJm

01/26/2026

One thing about Texas farmers: they will do it anyway. 🤠 When extreme weather hits, farmers and ranchers are in the field making sure crops, livestock, and your next meal are safe. THANK YOU!

With limited insurance protection for small-scale food producers, farmers need your business to ensure their livelihoods thrive. Check out your local farmers' market this weekend (state list: https://doubleuptexas.org/find-a-location/ and these businesses across Texas where you can shop local:

* indicates SNAP & Double Up Texas accepted

Open all week: Austin: Local Pastures, Wheatsville Food Co-op*, West Texas: Frontier Market LLC*, Ranchers Store Front- On the Square*

Open this weekend: Austin: SFC Farmers' Market* Brownsville: Brownsville Farmers' Market *

Thanks La Belle Vie Farm for Winter Storm Fern photos. DM us your frozen farm pictures!

01/23/2026

Austin folks! Check out this upcoming class.

01/23/2026

Need support stocking food ahead of this weekend’s freeze? Visit Feeding Texas’ Find a Foodbank tool https://www.feedingtexas.org/food-banks/
to locate a food bank close to you anywhere in Texas. For additional resources like warming centers and transportation, visit www.211texas.org and search resources by zip code.

After the storm, be sure to support farmers and ranchers by buying local food. Many are harvesting what they can before the freeze and will need your help putting it to use come Monday. We can weather the storm better together, Texas. 🩵

01/22/2026

The seasonal Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) expands access to fresh food and supports small farmer livelihood in Texas. ♻️ In 2025, Sustainable Food Center managed 11 FMNP locations that generated over $49,000 in additional income for 57 Texas farmers! 💸Sustainable Food Center West Texas

How it works: From spring through fall, families who receive WIC can pick up a $30 FMNP voucher to spend at their local farmers’ market. In total, SFC provided 2,644 Texas WIC shoppers with FMNP vouchers to put more on the table. 🍏

Some farmers’ markets in Central Texas like our SFC Farmers' Market and Texas Farmers' Market at Mueller double FMNP for a total of $60 to spend on local food. Whether it’s $30 or $60, every dollar goes into a local farmer’s pocket. That’s how we !

01/20/2026

Back in 2016, SFC was growing into the statewide leader in food access and farmer support we are today. ​​​​​🌱​ Back then, we were known in Austin for SFC Farmers' Market and The Happy Kitchen/ La Cocina Alegre®.

We had just opened the first “Double Dollars” SNAP doubling site (which became Double Up Food Bucks Texas) four years earlier in 2012. Our team saw huge potential in the program to transform Texas food. Fast forward to 2026 and SFC is now the statewide administrator of Double Up Food Bucks Texas!

More than 50 years after opening our doors in 1975, SFC is proud to say that our mission to nourish Texas health, land, and farmer livelihood remains the same, even as how we make an impact adapts and evolves.

#2016

01/19/2026

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’re spending time with the idea that food connects us to history ​​​​📚​ and shapes the future.​​​​🌱 From soul food’s African roots to Civil Rights-era lunch counter sit-ins, food culture is part of building the just world Dr. King dreamed of and fought for.

The power of Black foodways to honor the past and shape the future is central to our “What’s the Soul in Our Food?” cooking and nutrition course. In this Happy Kitchen course, we explore the African origins of soul food staples like okra and African influences of cooking with sweet potatoes, an American substitute for yams.

Read more about “What’s the Soul in Our Food?”: https://bit.ly/44WnUEP

01/16/2026

Maybe she’s cultivated with it 💋 Kale is winter covergirl material because like carrots, kale is sweeter after cold weather! Stop by SFC Farmers' Market tomorrow Saturday, January 17 9 AM-1PM to try winter kale for yourself. It’s also TreeFolks adopt a tree day at the Sunset Valley market!

In our exclusive sit down with winter’s IT green, we learned the vitamin-rich veggie uses amylolysis to convert starch to sugar to protect itself from cold weather. Pretty and talented!

Converting starch into sugar protects kale from the cold by lowering the freezing temperature of the veggie’s water content. Kale is also a great seasonal option to keep Vitamin C levels up in winter months. Just one cup of kale has 22% of your daily value of Vitamin C.

01/16/2026

01/15/2026

Bobby Flay ​​​vs. featured chef Laila Bazahm 💥​TONIGHT don’t miss Chef Laila going head to head with Chef Bobby on Food Network’s . January 15 at 7:30 PM CT

but we can say that Phillipines-born Chef Laila (El Raval Tapas Bar and Siti Austin) brought it home preparing traditional Filipino dish kare-kare. 💚

Taste for yourself! We’re excited to have Chef Laila back at Farm to Plate 2026. Tickets are available at early bird prices until January 31. Proceeds from Farm to Plate support SFC’s work transforming the food system to nourish Texas health, land, and farmer livelihood.

Save your seat at the table today: https://e.givesmart.com/events/KZ1/

01/12/2026

Thanks to you, Sustainable Food Center (SFC) is off to a strong start in 2026. 💚 Over the holidays, you helped us raise over $58,000 that will support families and farmers in Texas.
Special thanks to our The Austin Wine & Food Foundation who provided a generous $25,000 match.
Here are just a few ways we’ll invest your donations in Cultivating a Better Food Future:

​​🍏 Continuing to serve as the Texas administrator of Double Up Food Bucks Texas, our program that doubles SNAP for fresh fruits and veggies at over 100 locations

​​🍏Offering FREE, bilingual cooking and nutrition education from The Happy Kitchen / La Cocina Alegre®

​​🍏 Supporting small farmer livelihood by hosting SFC Farmers' Markets and driving local food sales through nutrition programs

​​🍏 Advocating for farmer support and fair food access in Texas policy

01/09/2026

Savvy ranchers and farmers know: nature offers solutions to sustainably produce abundant, high-quality food. ​​🥬​👩🏻‍🌾​ Biologicals are agricultural tools rooted in nature. Biologicals may be simple, like welcoming ladybugs 🐞to eat aphids, or they can be more technical.

Dr. Mariangela Hungaria won the 2025 World Food Prize for her research into biologicals in the form of beneficial bacteria. ​👩🏻‍🔬​ Dr. Hungaria identified bacteria and ways to apply it to soybean crops that support fixing and absorbing nitrogen, an essential element in plant growth. Increasing available nitrogen means farmers can boost crop yield without depending on costly nitrogen fertilizers, a major source of agricultural pollution. World Food Prize Foundation

While Dr. Hungaria’s work is specific to crops like soybeans, corn, and wheat in South America, there is now a foundation to replicate her work in other regions for more crops. Her success is a reminder of nature’s potential to solve human challenges including food insecurity and sustainability. More of this in 2026!

01/08/2026

|| Did you know carrots are sweeter after cold weather?​​🥕+❄️​=​🍬​ It’s not magic, it’s nature! Carrots protect themselves from freezing temperatures by converting starch in their cells into sugar.

Similar to the way salt melts ice on sidewalks, sugar acts like antifreeze for carrot cells by lowering the freeze point of water in the vegetable.

Don’t believe us? Stop by SFC Farmers' Market Downtown (422 Guadalupe St.) or at Sunset Valley (Jones Rd.) Saturdays 9 AM - 1 PM and taste test winter carrots for yourself!

01/06/2026

Just before the holidays, SFC joined forces with our long-time partner Wheatsville Food Co-op to provide 450+ Central Texans with FREE fresh winter produce. ❄️​Thanks to bountiful fresh fruits and veggies from Wheatsville Food Co-op, SFC was able to provide each recipient with one bag of fruit and one bag of veggies, totaling nearly 1,000 produce bags distributed!

When November SNAP benefits were delayed due to the government shutdown, Texans experienced an increase in food insecurity. Though benefits were issued by mid-November, this public distribution event gave family food security a boost toward not only surviving but thriving. 💚

Thanks to the SFC and Wheatsville team members and our supportive community for championing fair access to fresh food for every Texan.

01/01/2026

Happy new year! We have an exciting announcement to kickstart your 2026 resolutions: Sustainable Food Center (SFC) is honored to be the nonprofit beneficiary for this year’s Statesman Capitol 10,000 ! 🏃​🏃‍♀️​

Donations made by race registrants will support our work transforming the Texas food system through fair access to local food. Through SFC programs like Double Up Food Bucks Texas, which double SNAP benefits for fresh fruits and veggies, we’re racing toward a Better Food Future. How’s that for motivation?

Register today at the link in bio before the next fee increase on Jan. 12: https://www.cap10k.com/ A big thank you you to all the race sponsors, and special thanks to presenting sponsor Baylor Scott and White, and sponsors and SFC Tito's Handmade Vodka and H-E-B.

12/31/2025

Today is the LAST day of Sustainable Food Center’s (SFC) 50th anniversary year and the LAST day to make a donation to SFC that will be matched by The Austin Wine & Food Foundation. ​🎆​✨​Give today: https://bit.ly/SFCHolidayDonation2025

Your gift to SFC is an investment in Cultivating a Better Food Future. Over the past five decades, SFC has grown from a single community garden in Austin to a statewide leader in systems-level change that increases fair food access and supports small farmer livelihood.

The success of our program Double Up Food Bucks Texas, which doubles SNAP benefits to buy more fresh fruits and veggies at over 100 participating farmers’ markets and grocery stores, is your success.

Thanks to everyone who has already given to support our work transforming the food system. If you haven’t given yet, consider ending 2025 with a gift that will make a positive impact on Texas families and farmers: https://bit.ly/SFCHolidayDonation2025 💚

12/30/2025

2025 was a year of uncertainty for many Texas families and farmers. Thanks to support from donors like you, SFC remained a resource Texans could rely on amidst food price inflation and the longest government shutdown in history.

Your support allows SFC to act fast in rapidly changing policy landscapes — Donate today: https://bit.ly/SFCHolidayDonation2025 💚Here are just a few of the impacts you made possible this year:

🥬​ Uninterrupted nutrition education courses from The Happy Kitchen / La Cocina Alegre, which provides participants with FREE groceries at every class

🛒​ Three produce bag distribution events that put money in farmers’ pockets and food on families’ tables

🧑‍🌾 The launch of a temporary relief program, Double Up Fresh Bucks / Dólares Frescos at over 40 Texas farmers’ markets

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for supporting SFC. Will you make a gift to ensure we can continue to nourish Texas health, land, and livelihood in the new year? When you donate by tomorrow December 31, your donation will be matched by The Austin Wine & Food Foundation for double the impact.

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas! Pecan pie is a holiday favorite, but did you know this is also a history lesson in a nutshell? 🤠​

Native to North America, pecans are a traditional food for many indigenous people, including tribes in present-day Texas. (Via American Indians in Texas - Spanish Colonial Missions, article: https://aitscm.org/news/coahuiltecan-native-foodways-series-pecans/.) “Pecan” comes from the indigenous Algonquian* word for nut and was introduced to English by the French (pecane) via the fur trade.

Pie recipes were widespread across Europe when colonists arrived in the Americas, so it was only a matter of time before local ingredients made it into this versatile pastry. Plenty of settlers were incorporating pecans into their cooking, but the majority of early pecan pie recipes come from Texas cookbooks in the late 1800s and early 1900s. (Via ) No wonder Texans are so good at pecan pie!

*There are many dialects of Algonquian languages spoken by distinct but culturally connected Algonquin tribes including Shawnee, Cree, Ojibwe, and more.

12/24/2025

Nutrition is a powerful gift. 🎁 After Sarah’s older sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, she enrolled in Cooking After Cancer to learn how to support her sister through food. Targeted nutrition courses like Cooking After Cancer are made possible by donors and community members like you.

In class, Sarah learned, “When you’re going through cancer, you’re not necessarily eating in a ‘normal’ way. One of the first things we made was Rice Pudding, and it was just like this perfect little hug,” Sarah said. “Some of the days I would talk to my sister and she wasn’t feeling up to eating, I envisioned that if it were me, this is something that would fuel me in my heart and also in my tummy.”

Give the gift of relevant nutrition to more families like Sarah’s by donating to SFC today: https://bit.ly/SFCHolidayDonation2025 When you donate by December 31, your donation will be matched by The Austin Wine & Food Foundation for double the impact.

12/23/2025

With all the festivities and gift giving this time of year, grocery budgets can be tight. Good news: shoppers spending WIC benefits receive TRIPLE their monthly benefits for fresh fruits and veggies SFC Farmers' Market. The market is OPEN this Saturday, Dec. 27. 💚​💜​🧡

is available at both SFC Farmers' Market locations (Downtown and at Sunset Valley) all year long. There is no limit to the number of times you can triple WIC, so come back monthly to spend benefits on fresh, local food. You’ll receive your multiplied WIC in Double Up Food Bucks, which never expire. So buy what you need and save some for later!

Spend your regular monthly WIC benefits on any WIC-eligible items including meat, eggs, and dairy, and spend your tripled benefits on fresh fruits and veggies. Stop by the market info booth to triple your benefits and talk to a crew member about how works.