There was a time when the tools Matthew Kronschnabel needed for their job included a rake and a shovel. As a wildland firefighter working for the National Forest Service, they used those tools to rake firelines and toss dirt as they tried to smother a flame. The rugged work is burned into their subconscious.

“It was an intense enough experience that it still shows up in my dreams,” Kronschnabel said.

Managing wildfires, though dangerous, allowed Kronschnabel to earn enough money to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, they earned a degree in horticulture, maximizing their familiarity with rakes and shovels for a new purpose. With their degree in hand, they put those tools to work in the field, starting a cooperative farm with a friend on land owned by the friend’s family in the rural and agriculturally-robust Wisconsin town of Viroqua.

Farming evolved into baking and then transitioned to supporting a local seed company. While working at the seed company, Kronschnabel joined the Wisconsin Farmers Union and its local chapter, where they made connections with like-minded people hoping to create change in the local food system. 

One concept they embraced was finding a way to bolster access to local food for those in the community who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds. In Wisconsin, the SNAP program is called FoodShare. On average, the state distributes about $113 million in FoodShare benefits a month to about 700,000 recipients, which improves their purchasing power.

As a Farmers Union chapter president, Kronschnabel led the charge to implement a nutrition incentive program at their local farmers market, which would offer matching funds for SNAP recipients. In simple terms, that means their FoodShare funds could go further. For example, if a shopper uses $20 in FoodShare benefits on fruits and vegetables, the market would give them another $20 to spend on local food. Families bring home more healthy food, and local farmers make more sales. The same dollars stretch further and stay in the community.

Kronschnabel understood the need for better access to locally grown food and the economic impact that comes when nutrition assistance dollars are matched and spent locally. They understood because they’ve been there.

“The motivation for this is, and was, my first-hand experience as someone who has been unemployed or underemployed and taking advantage of food subsidies and food share and knowing how significant a nutrition incentive is,” Kronschnabel said. 

Data indicates that over the course of a year about $120 million of Wisconsin’s FoodShare funding, or about .02%, is used at farmers markets that accept FoodShare as a form of payment. To Kronschnabel, that data represents an economic opportunity with multiple benefits.

If the farmers market in their community, and those across the state, could introduce programs that match FoodShare funds, it may entice more people to spend their FoodShare funds at the market, expanding access to nutritious food while expanding markets for the farmers who produce it.

“Ultimately, it’s more money for folks who need it and it’s more money going back into our local food economies. That’s the core of what drives me to do this work and participate,” they said. “Doing an incentive program injects more money into the local food economy.”

About 25 cents of every SNAP dollar spent, regardless of where it is spent, goes to farmers and ranchers. Wal-Mart leads retailers for SNAP market share, capturing up to 26% of all SNAP funds spent. In Kronschnabel’s mind, a program that matches SNAP dollars could help capture more of those funds and keep them local. 

“This is money coming from the federal government, so let’s keep it in our communities,” they said. “We’re just shipping it away to Wal-Mart and Aldi and they don’t invest in our communities.”

At the tail end of the 2025 farmers market season in Viroqua, Kronschnabel worked with a farmer in Soldier’s Grove to introduce the matching program on a trial basis. The market secured funding from the Wisconsin Farmers Union to match FoodShare funds dollar-for-dollar. And the difference was palpable, particularly due to the timing.

The pilot program was held just as SNAP funding was paused at the federal level due to a government shutdown in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. 

“It felt like one of the most impactful things I’ve ever participated in. Just physically giving people money to spend on local food was so powerful,” they said. 

Kronschnabel heard people at the market say they were excited to buy things they never previously had enough money to buy. They stocked up on local meat and grabbed extra quarts of strawberries that they’d ordinarily need to leave behind. For Kronschnabel, and their Farmers Union chapter, it was enough to pursue a longer-term matching program. That effort in their community would align with a statewide push that has earned the nickname WINI, which stands for Wisconsin Nutrition Incentive Partner Network. 

The program, supported by Kronschnabel’s alma mater, aims to create continuity across the state to facilitate more equitable access to nutritious food. 

“It’s very exciting to think about what kind of impact we can have with a longer runway,” they said.

They have a lot of ideas, realizing that funding will need to be a priority and access should also be addressed. Kronschnabel entered the horticulture scene at a time they refer to as the “local food renaissance,” and they can’t help but believe that opportunities were missed along the way, starting with how many farmers markets failed to appeal to or target lower-income individuals. 

As someone who has faced financial challenges in the past, they understand that it’s easier for people with higher incomes to attend markets on the one day they are held every week or every month, whereas lower-income individuals may have conflicts with work. And, lower-income individuals receiving nutrition assistance have funds they need to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables. 

“We totally missed the mark,” they said, looking ahead to what’s possible in the future. “What can we do to expand this beyond the market, so people who can’t make it can still participate?”