Online Redemption of SNAP Benefits To Be Piloted

By: Jennifer Hatcher, Senior Vice President, Government and Public Affairs, Food Marketing Institute

USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s Andrea Gold spoke with FMI members at FMI’s State Issues Retreat earlier this month about a number of updates in the agency’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). There was a particular interest in the request for a volunteer application that USDA is expecting to release later in September for a very limited number of pilots of online redemption of SNAP food assistance benefits. Gold said volunteers would have 45 days after the release to submit a rather extensive application. The idea behind the limited pilots is to gather information to determine whether online redemption of SNAP benefits should be considered when reauthorization of the SNAP program is discussed.

Gold said that applicant retailers would have to be operating in a state where the state contractor was interested and capable of facilitating the transaction. Retailers would also need a letter from their state indicating the state’s support of the retailer application; demonstration by the retailer of an existing online program and demonstration of their ability to facilitate a split tender transaction online as any delivery fees could not be paid for with SNAP benefits. Retail applicants would have to be able to separate eligible and ineligible items electronically online and would have to differentiate sales tax and how it is collected for ineligible items.

The 2014 Farm Bill directed FNS to conduct an online SNAP redemption pilot as a way to better serve all SNAP customers and reflect the evolving U.S. grocery shopping habits. FMI has worked with the agency over the past two years to identify the challenges and opportunities of online SNAP redemption.