While nutrition coupons come in regularly through the season, beginning in early Fall and through the Winter, the Farmers Market Federation offices are receiving nutrition program coupons by the truckloads! We’re testing our athletic skills by a daily routine of lifting, sorting, opening, stacking, and eventually as the boxes pile up, practicing hurdling in order to get to our desks and start the scanners humming. (So far, Britni is the best at this one!)
Because of this incredible volume and our desire to redeem your coupons accurately and send a check out as soon as possible, you can imagine what a delight it is to open a package in which the coupons are:
accompanied by a clearly legible redemption form (which can be found here), so we know the count you came up with and how to contact you to send you your check.
neatly bundled, not loosely strewn about like a can of Confetti.
all facing the same way – important because the bar code is on one side of the coupon and must be put in the scanner bar code side down to be readable.
devoid of staples that can damage scanners and cause bleeding fingers trying to remove them.
stamped with the FMNP number in the designated spot and not covering the bar code (please).
free from sticky rice with soy sauce, gum, sitting in dirt, dark liquid stains, urine odor, big tears, and deep folds that make it difficult to feed flatly into our scanners. (These are all taken from real-life coupon encounters!)
received by the dates printed on the coupons. Please note the dates and send them to us in time, so the funding will still be available for redemption. And unfortunately, we are not able to accept found coupons from previous years.
We really are doing our very best to scan the coupons we receive in a timely manner because we know you would like to receive the funds as quickly as possible. So please keep in mind that the more orderly we receive your coupons, the faster we can process them. Yes, we are only human, and some errors will be made just by virtue of the extraordinary number of coupons the three of us are handling and the thousands of checks that need to be written out. We appreciate your patience when hearing from you and will be happy to correct discovered errors. Keeping these coupon programs running smoothly will ensure they will be there to support our farmers, markets, and customers for years to come.
Sincerely yours,
DIANE, BRITNI, AND BETH