With Spring’s arrival, Jon Henry General Store helps customers’ dollar go further with food-producing plants and seed benefits

NEW MARKET, Va. (WHSV) – Spring planting season is here and there are ways to make your garden grow.

After many benefits were reduced when COVID funding ended.

Jon Henry, owner of Jon Henry General Store in New Market said one of the untapped benefits for EBT, food stamps, PEBT and SNAP benefits is the ability to purchase seeds and plants that grow into food.

“This program allows us to kind of stretch that benefits even more and allows you to kind of take charge of your own home to grow your own food at a very reduced cost to your family,” Henry said.

Jon Henry General Store is one of the few grocery stores in the Commonwealth where you can get 50% off the plant and seed purchase, something a partnership with Virginia Fresh Match made possible.

“If you buy a tomato plant, normal retail would be like say $3 you get that 50% off — that’s a $1.50 and if that tomato plant produces 20 pounds of tomatoes for you throughout the year that’s like $19 in savings of tomatoes at 99 cents a pound,” Henry said.

Recently, Jon Henry General Store was able to expand and create an outdoor pavilion to house more of these plants.

“Right now, we just have the typical cold crops available, but then starting you know when it gets warmer, we’ll have the full garden variety, but we also have some non-GMO seeds available,” Henry said.

Henry works with local greenhouses to provide the different types of plants.

“We’re really hoping to push that this year so folks can have more resiliency and grow their own food and have access to healthier food you know just on your stoop, on your porch or your windowsill even,” Henry said.

He said the program is only for plants that will grow food and not average garden plants or flowers.

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