FNS Invests Nearly $53 Million in SNAP Administration, Program Integrity

WASHINGTON, October 6, 2021 – U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) awarded nearly $53 million across eight grant programs to state and local agencies and partners to enhance the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). These grants, released throughout August and September 2021, will help ensure program operators and partners have the resources, support, and capacity to deliver SNAP benefits efficiently and effectively.

“SNAP represents a critical component of America’s food safety net – and now more than ever, we need to ensure that safety net is well-supported” said Cindy Long, administrator for the food and nutrition service. “State agencies and their partners are the backbone of the program, and these grants are part of USDA’s commitment to providing them the resources they need to deliver program benefits in a manner that best meets the needs of the people they serve while maximizing program integrity and the use of data.”

The grants focused on improving efficiency, program integrity, data and analysis, customer service, SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) programs, and nutrition. They include:

• SNAP Enhanced Income Verification Grants — $16.5 million awarded to 19 state agencies to support and evaluate the use of third-party databases to enhance how states verify the income of SNAP participants, promoting administrative efficiency. 
• SNAP Longitudinal Data Project Grants — $18 million awarded to 11 state agencies to help establish research databases with eligibility, benefit, and demographic information on SNAP households to enable research on SNAP participation over time and across state lines.
• SNAP E&T Data and Technical Assistance Grants — $3.7 million awarded to five state agencies to improve SNAP E&T data quality and analysis and use that information to bolster E&T programs.
• SNAP E&T National Partnership Grants — $2.6 million awarded to two national nonprofits – Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies – to leverage their extensive networks to identify, train, and support prospective SNAP E&T providers.
• SNAP Fraud Framework Grants — $2.5 million awarded to five state agencies to advance recipient fraud prevention, detection, and investigation efforts using best practices from the SNAP Fraud Framework FNS released in 2018.
• SNAP Process and Technology Improvement Grants — $4.8 million awarded to seven state agencies and nonprofits, to enhance the user experience of SNAP applications and notices; strengthen public health emergency preparedness and pandemic response; and improve customer service to SNAP participants.
• SNAP Healthy Fluid Milk Incentive Grant — $930,000 awarded to Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty to support the development and testing of using incentives to encourage SNAP households to buy and drink more milk.
• SNAP Online Purchasing Participation Assistance for Farmers and Farmers’ Markets Grant — $3.7 million awarded to the National Association of Farmers’ Markets Nutrition Programs (NAFMNP), a nonprofit that works with the farmers market community to support farmers interested in offering online payment using SNAP benefits.

SNAP is the most far-reaching, powerful tool available to ensure that low-income Americans, regardless of their background, can purchase healthy food. FNS is committed to supporting and enhancing the administration and effectiveness of SNAP to best serve the more than 42.3 million Americans who rely on SNAP benefits to afford food for themselves and their families.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service leverages its 15 nutrition assistance programs to ensure that children, low-income individuals, and families have opportunities for a better future through equitable access to safe, healthy, and nutritious food, while building a more resilient food system. Under the leadership of Secretary Tom Vilsack, FNS is fighting to end food and nutrition insecurity for all through programs such as SNAP, school meals, and WIC. FNS also provides science-based nutrition recommendations through the co-development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. To learn more, visit www.fns.usda.gov.

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