This bill adds a new section to chapter 43.70 RCW to establish a "mobile market program" in "the department" to increase nutrition access for participants in the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) and senior farmers market nutrition programs and to support local farmers. The availability of the program is conditional on funding being made available to the department through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The bill was read in the House on 02/04/25 and takes effect March 1, 2026. The department must define and establish the mobile market program by rule. The rulemaking must, at minimum, require that mobile market programs be operated by a nonprofit organization and serve an area that does not have a farmers market. The department is directed to conduct rulemaking consistent with the statute and may, if it deems necessary, file a waiver with the USDA to allow mobile market programs to accept both WIC and senior farmers market nutrition program benefits. This is a new-law administrative and procedural change creating a state program and requiring agency rulemaking and potential federal waiver filing; it does not create a crime or change criminal penalties. Important details are not provided in the extracted text: the specific identity of "the department" is not named, no timetable or procedural details for rulemaking are given, the bill does not specify how benefits would be accepted by mobile markets, no funding amounts or application/certification processes for operators are included, and an exact new RCW section number is not provided.

If this becomes law, nonprofit organizations could set up mobile markets to bring fresh produce into parts of the state that do not already have a farmers market, and those markets would be intended to serve people in the WIC and senior farmers market nutrition programs. In practice this could create new sales opportunities for local farmers and more places for eligible participants to use benefits, but the program will only operate where the federal USDA provides funding and potentially approves a waiver to let mobile markets accept both WIC and senior benefits. The state department named in chapter 43.70 RCW would have to write the rules that define how the mobile market program works, and it may need to file paperwork with the USDA, so nonprofits will face uncertainty about timing, administrative requirements, and whether federal money or a waiver will be approved. The law takes effect March 1, 2026, but key details about which department runs it, how operators enroll, what costs or standards they must meet, and how benefit acceptance will be implemented are not specified in the text provided.