Kansas City, Mo. ? The state has eliminated a program that gave low-income mothers and seniors vouchers to use on produce at farmers’ markets, affecting not just the people who lost the coupons, but farmers who say they’ve lost thousands of dollars in revenues.

“It was devastating,” said Stephanie Spatz-Ornburn, director of marketing and events at the City Market in downtown Kansas City.

John Goode, a Wathena, Kan., farmer who sells his goods at the City Market, said about one-quarter of his business, or about $9,000, came from vouchers. Goode is considering selling his crops at markets in Kansas, which still has a voucher program for seniors.

In Missouri last year, 10 counties participated in the voucher program, which started as a pilot project in Boone County 10 years ago, according to Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Senior Services, which was in charge of the program. Gonder said the hope is that the private sector will take it over.

The program provided six $3 coupons to low-income mothers each summer and 10 $3 coupons to low-income seniors. Last summer, 37,700 Missourians bought more than $426,000 worth of produce using the coupons.

The state spent $110,000 on the program last year, Gonder said. An additional $417,466 came from the federal government.

Margaret Monaco, 85, of Kansas City, said the program allowed her to splurge on produce during her trips to the City Market over the last four summers.

“You’d get a little of this, a little of that,” Monaco said. “You could get quite a bit.”

Some nutritionists noted the benefits of a program that gives low-income people free fruits and vegetables.

“If they take that away from them, they might go to the grocery store, but they don’t have any more money than before,” said Susan Mills-Gray, a nutrition and health specialist at the University of Missouri Extension Service in Cass County.

Eve Wells is coordinator of a federal supplemental nutrition program at Samuel U. Rodgers Community Health Center in Kansas City, but it offers vouchers only for foods such as milk, cereal and peanut butter to low-income women, infants and children up to age 5.

“We don’t actually give them anything (now) that coincides with what we are recommending,” Wells said.