Frequently Asked Questions for the Carte Proximité – 2021 Edition

What is Carte Proximité?

It is a method of payment. The Card can be used as a method of payment at the various markets that participate in the program.

What do we mean by “Solidarity”?

The Carte Proximité gives your members more purchasing power, allowing them to put more fresh food on their plates. Hundreds of households are receiving a Card. According to the size of the household, a monthly deposit will be put on each card at the beginning of the month, for a total of 4 deposits between July and October:

  1. 25$/month for a person living alone

  2. 50$/month for a couple

  3. 100$/month for a family with children

What do we mean by “Farmers”?

With the Carte Proximité, we are encouraging local food systems by sourcing food that comes directly from the producer to the market. Without an intermediary, the prices are more fair for the farmers, who get adequately compensated for their work.

What can a participant purchase with a Carte Proximité?

In the initial 2020 season, participants could purchase local food items that were whole foods or only lightly processed, meaning: fruits, vegetables, eggs, honey, dairy products, and certain meats.

Though the program was successful, there were a few hesitations related to the eligibility of items were raised by the participating markets and by program participants, notably:

  1. The availability of eligible products varied greatly from one market to another;

  2. It was difficult to identify which foods were eligible;

  3. The line between lightly processed and more heavily processed was difficult to determine.

As a reminder, the dual objective of Carte proximité is to:

  1. Improve access to fruits and vegetables;

  2. Promote the sourcing of local food (particularly directly from producers).

With these objectives in mind, and after a reflection and evaluation process conducted both internally and externally among research professionals and experts in the field, we have formulated a new proposal for 2021:

Items eligible to be purchased with a Carte proximité:

  1. Local fruits, vegetables, milk, non-dairy milks, and eggs;
  2. All other food items that are sourced directly from their producer in Québec;
  3. Meals or other prepared foods that are prepared by the participating markets with unsold food, with the objective of reducing food waste.

*All beverages other than milk and non-dairy milk are excluded.

How should we choose participants?

An initial budget will be offered to you to enable you to choose the number of households (and thus denominations of cards) to distribute cards to.

Participants are registered by their local community organizations, which enables the program to ensure that participants fulfill the following selection criteria:

  1. The participating household is experiencing food insecurity ;

  2. The participating household is able to travel to a participating market (or has access to a helper who can assist them);

  3. One participant per household is registered to the Card.

It will be up to the organizations to transmit to us the full details of all participating households recruited by May 28th 2021 using the Google Form that will be sent to you.

How will the distribution of the Cards work?

As soon as the final list of participating households is received, we will register the Cards in their names and deposit the first installment on the Cards.

We will then send the Cards to your organization, which you can distribute to your members according to your preferred method (mail, pickup, etc.). This is another good reason to finalize your list of participating households as early as possible before July 1st!