“We found out that WIC (food assistance participants) would show up to the farmers market that HAP was supposed to be hosting, and there would be no farmers and no produce, and no one from HAP to explain what was going on,” Bontrager said.
Margaret Hart, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, confirmed earlier this week that the department sent “secret shoppers” to visit scheduled farmers markets twice in 2014 and twice in 2015, which is customary. They found no vendors present.