Snap

GusNIP grant programs receive more than $52m in funding to support nutrition and healthy food access

20-Nov-2023 By Deniz Ataman

The funding will aid initiatives within three National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) competitive grant programs that make up the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), including include Nutrition Incentive (NI), Produce Prescription...

How can dollar stores improve access to healthy foods? CSPI shares policy recommendations

06-Nov-2023 By Ryan Daily

Dollar stores have become a popular grocery channel for lower-income consumers and those looking to combat inflation, while their lack of healthy and nutritious foods causes concern for health professionals and regulators, as shared in a recent Center...

Food insecurity climbs alongside inflation as federal nutrition assistance enhancements end

26-Oct-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

A notable uptick in food insecurity in the US in 2022 from the previous year is a “wake-up call” for federal and local governments to better fund and fully use federal nutrition assistance programs, all of which are at risk of being cut or restricted,...

Instacart expands access to food as medicine by partnering with Alignment Healthcare, InComm Payments

03-Oct-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Instacart and Alignment Healthcare will offer co-branded Medicare Advantage plans in 2024, which will allow participating consumers in qualifying counties to be reimbursed by Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and other eligible programs for “eligible groceries,...

Instacart expands online SNAP EBT acceptance nationwide as part of sweeping commitment to improve equitable access to nutritious food

10-Aug-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Low-income consumers who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, can now use their benefits to buy groceries online in all 50 states and Washington, DC, following Instacart’s launch at seven Safeway locations...

US low-income households could get discounts for more dairy products if this bill passes

07-Aug-2023 By Teodora Lyubomirova

A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress is seeking to expand access to dairy products such as yogurt and cheese for SNAP households by amending the scope of the HFMI program.

Feed by FarmboxRx supplies households affected by pandemic-era SNAP cuts with monthly nutritious meal boxes

09-Jun-2023 By Deniz Ataman

The application-based program will deliver two FarmboxRx packages for six months containing a variety of fresh produce and essential pantry items for 200 households. In addition, households will receive information to help them prepare nutritious meals,...

Snack industry leaders to meet with US lawmakers to discuss SNAP nutrition

05-Jun-2023 By Gill Hyslop

Snac International’s annual Legislative Summit - taking place on 6-7 June in Washington, DC - will address pressing key policy issues that are shaping the snack food industry.

GAO flags ‘high risk’ priorities for USDA including climate change threats, best practices for reevaluating the Thrifty Food Plan

30-May-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

The US Department of Agriculture should help farmers and ranchers better manage climate change risks and step-up oversight of federal assistance programs, including future reevaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan, which determines benefits under the Supplemental...

Flashfood’s report addresses food inequity and food waste, offers its discount grocery app to SNAP recipients

24-May-2023 By Deniz Ataman

Flashfood’s State of Food Waste Impact report underscores the link between food waste and food insecurity in the midst of inflation-driven grocery prices and shifting food policies surrounding SNAP benefits and accessibility.

Grocers can defend against potential sales losses of $20b by better supporting SNAP shoppers, dunnhumby research reveals

23-May-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Grocery stores could lose upwards of $20b in sales in 2023, or 2.8% of the industry’s $850b in sales last year, due to cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, and unless they act with “genuine” empathy that...

New York City’s adoption of plant-forward menus in hospitals and schools offer insight to replicability for the rest of the country

23-May-2023 By Deniz Ataman

As “New York City’s most famous vegan,” Mayor Eric Adams’ reflected on his administration’s plant-forward initiatives in the city’s 11 hospitals and surrounding public schools during the opening reception of the Vegan Women Summit at the Mayor’s Mansion...

AFFI members call for a unified food program under one leader and advocate for the passage of the SHOPP Act

12-May-2023 By Deniz Ataman

During the American Frozen Food Institute’s (AFFI) Government Action Summit on May 9-10, leaders and executives in the frozen food industry met with Congressional representatives and staff to discuss the potential reorganization of the FDA’s food division...

FMI members to address food industry policies with lawmakers on Capitol Hill

19-Apr-2023 By Deniz Ataman

Discussions between FMI – The Food Industry Association’s Government Relations Committee and lawmakers will surround Farm Bill reauthorization, food safety regulations and credit card competition, among others on April 19, 2023.

Biden Administration budget request includes boosts to food safety, nutrition programs

16-Mar-2023 By Lauren Nardella

President Biden’s FY 2024 budget request would increase funding for FDA and USDA and make investments in food safety and nutrition programs, but is far from a done deal given a divisive Congress.

Was USDA’s process for increasing SNAP benefits ‘marred’? GAO reveals shortcomings of Thrifty Food Plan review that could impact future assessments

05-Jan-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

The US Department of Agriculture’s decision this summer to increase the benefits allotted under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program well beyond inflation is under fire after a government watchdog found the agency did not follow best-practices...

Congress redirects emergency SNAP benefits to fund summer meals for school kids

04-Jan-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Anti-hunger advocates are lauding Congress for setting aside $40m in the 2023 omnibus spending bill to improve children’s access to healthy food in summer when many schools and their cafeterias are closed, placing young people who rely on free and reduced-price...

Futureproofing the food system: How are food insecurity and health outcomes connected and what benefits do produce prescriptions, medically tailored meals and personalized nutrition offer?

21-Oct-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

Researchers are calling on clinicians and the healthcare system to screen for food insecurity and better promote food access programs after discovering that Americans with limited or uncertain access to adequate food is on the rise and they are more likely...

Who is being hit hardest by inflation? Less-healthy older adults, poll finds

30-Sep-2022 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Record-high levels of food inflation are impacting different segments of the population differently, with those over the age of 50 who rate their physical or mental health as 'fair' or 'poor' struggling the most, a recent poll conducted...

New in brief

'An historic opportunity to address food scarcity, nutrition insecurity and insufficient physical activity…’ White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health scheduled for Sept 28

29-Aug-2022 By Elaine Watson

The Biden administration has set a date – Sept 28 - for the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health since 1969.

USDA earmarks millions for farmers markets, prescription produce and farm to school programs to ‘transform the food system’

19-Aug-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

Farmers markets are more than a popular summer destination for Americans who want to learn where their food comes from – they also play a key role in Federal nutrition programs and the government’s plan to transform the food system to better support small...

News In Brief

The White House: ‘Millions of Americans are struggling with hunger … we cannot wait to act’

23-May-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

This fall, the White House will host a highly-anticipated and hard fought for second Conference on Food, Nutrition, Hunger and Health at the behest of a bipartisan nationwide grassroots movement led by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) as part of an ambitious...

Ignoring price-sensitive shoppers could cost grocers even though they are only 1/3 of consumers

22-Feb-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

Price sensitive consumers may be on the decline and make up only a third of all grocery shoppers, but they appear to have an outsized impact on select categories as rising inflation prompts them to rein in spending, according to new research by Symphony...

IRI: Stimulus changes threatened CPG industry with $3bn loss unless stakeholders better support SNAP shoppers

03-Nov-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

The CPG industry is facing a potential $3bn loss as temporary pandemic-related stimulus earmarked for groceries was phased out last month – despite the launch of a simultaneous permanent increase in monthly benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance...

Largest increase in SNAP history recognizes higher grocery costs, program’s potential to boost economy

17-Aug-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

For the first time in decades other than for inflation, the US Department of Agriculture is increasing the basis for which it calculates food assistance benefits allotted under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – a move that will help more...

Hurdles holding back SNAP participants from healthy diets reveal opportunities for brands, retailers

24-Jun-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

New research revealing that nearly nine out of ten participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, struggle to maintain healthy diets suggests the method for how aid is determined is outdated and reveals...

SNAP benefits temporarily expanded for families, higher education students impacted by pandemic

23-Mar-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

The US Departments of Agriculture and Education are making it easier for Americans suffering food insecurity due to the pandemic to put food on the table by temporarily increasing and expanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits as part...

Faced with rising food insecurity, legislators & industry stakeholders consider expanding, tweaking aid

12-Mar-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

With the pandemic’s impact on the economy and food insecurity in America expected to outlast the threat of the current coronavirus, stakeholders are calling on legislators to rethink how food and funds through nutrition programs are disbursed – changes...

Biden tackles food insecurity in executive order to boost SNAP, Pandemic-EBT benefits & more

22-Jan-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

President Joe Biden today is expected to take aim at the rising rate of food insecurity in the US during the ongoing pandemic by signing an executive order that will increase federal food assistance, including for those who currently receive the maximum...

Judge’s decision to block SNAP work requirements will help hundreds of thousands buy food

20-Oct-2020 By Elizabeth Crawford

In a withering opinion published Sunday, a federal judge struck down a Final Rule pushed by the Trump administration that would have severely reduced or eliminated nutrition assistance to more than 1 million Americans during and after the pandemic.

Ongoing obesity epidemic among children sparks call for expanded nutrition benefits, stricter school meal standards

14-Oct-2020 By Elizabeth Crawford

Despite broad efforts to reduce sugar, sodium, fat and excess calories in the American diet in recent years, childhood obesity continues to afflict one in seven 10- to 17-year-olds in the US, leaving them vulnerable not only to type II diabetes, high...

Upcoming expiration for P-EBT food assistance for school children threatens long-term ramifications

18-Sep-2020 By Elizabeth Crawford

Public health advocates fear Congress will adjourn for fall break without first extending emergency food assistance that is set to expire at the end of the month – potentially leaving millions of families whose children rely on free or reduced school...

13% of Americans rely on SNAP food assistance – IRI shares strategies to win & keep their business

17-Sep-2020 By Elizabeth Crawford

As the number of Americans dependent on what was once known as food stamps swells to 13% of the population due in large part to an unemployment spike related to the pandemic, they have become an increasingly important demographic for CPG retailers, according...

Health advocates push for expanded nutrition assistance to ease record food insecurity, stimulate economy

04-Aug-2020 By Elizabeth Crawford

As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to drive up food prices alongside unemployment, food insecurity in the US is reaching new heights that far exceed those experienced during and since the Great Recession – spurring calls for increased government...

Analysts call for SNAP increases during COVID-19 pandemic to boost food security, economy

23-Mar-2020 By Elizabeth Crawford

While Americans scramble to stock their pantries amid the growing threat from COVID-19, many more cannot afford to do so – prompting some economic analysts and public health leaders to call on legislators to increase the benefits available under the Supplemental...

Proposed Presidential Budget once again threatens ‘savage’ cuts to SNAP & other safety-net programs

10-Feb-2020 By Elizabeth Crawford

In what critics are calling an unrealistic, “cruel” and even “savage” effort to reduce the national deficit by $4.4 trillion over the next decade, President Trump proposes in his FY 2021 budget deep funding cuts for several safety-net programs, including...

Legislators examine potential impact on free school meals of USDA’s proposed SNAP policy changes

14-Oct-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

At a House Education and Labor subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, legislators will consider the extent to which the US Department of Agriculture’s proposed policy changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would unnecessarily jeopardize...

USDA calls back FSA staff to ease shutdown pressure on farmers, but other services remain in limbo

24-Jan-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

This morning more than 9,700 federal employees who work for the Farm Services Agency will return to work without pay at least part time for the duration of the partial government shutdown, which is now in its 33rd day and by far the longest in US history.

Confusion about SNAP rules blocks college students from access benefits, GAO finds

14-Jan-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

Millions of college students struggle with food insecurity in the US and while many schools provide food and emergency financial assistance, the US Food and Nutrition Service should do more to connect eligible students to federally funded feeding programs...

SNAP: White House about-face ensures some low-income Americans will continue to receive food aid

09-Jan-2019 By Elizabeth Crawford

As the partial government shutdown entered the 19th day and furloughed federal employees face the prospect of their first missed paycheck this Friday, the White House is taking steps to ensure low-income Americans will continue to receive support for...

Farm Bill axes ‘mean-spirited’ restrictions to SNAP proposed by House & expands coverage

12-Dec-2018 By Elizabeth Crawford

Public health advocates are lauding the $876bn Farm Bill passed by an overwhelming majority of the Senate on Tuesday for rejecting controversial proposals in the House version of the bill that would have significantly curtailed access to the nation’s...

Most voters want Congress to preserve SNAP, ag benefit programs in next Farm Bill, survey shows

25-Jul-2018 By Elizabeth Crawford

New research reveals most Americans believe the government is “doing a poor job across the board on food and ag policy,” and should do more to ensure everyone has access to enough healthy food and to support the farmers who feed the country.