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Local farm hosting fundraiser for food stamp program

ATLANTA — A local program that helps families on food assistance double their purchasing power is trying to raise money to keep the program going.

Truly Living Well Farms operates a community garden on Hilliard Street in northeast Atlanta.

"It needs to get funded so, you know, all people have access to high quality food," Diedra Cobb told Channel 2's Erin Coleman.

Cobb and dozens of others coming to the garden every week receive government assistance for food. Through the program, she can get twice the produce.

"It really helps to be able to double that money and put enough food on the table," she added.

Truly Living Well Farms doubles food stamps, so if you spend $10, you get $20 worth of food.

"It gives you a great break financially and you can feed your whole family because it's so plentiful. It's a lot of it growing," said Sasta Hetep, another recipient.

Friday afternoon, workers and volunteers were harvesting squash, collard greens and turnips for the market. Those are just a few of the items you'll find there.

They said that, surprisingly, a lot of people don't know about the program or what it takes to keep it going.

"The financial support from the community allows us to do our operations," Mark Flanagan with Truly Living Well said. "If we didn't have that support, we wouldn't be able to provide fresh food at half the cost."

Garden leaders are hosting their annual fundraiser, called Crafting Bowls for Change, on Saturday, May 25.

They're hoping the community will help support all of the garden's programs and raise awareness about the need to end food insecurity.