Jillian Michaels, Thrive Market Trying to Bring Food Stamps Online

Personal trainer and TV personality Jillian Michaels and online grocer Thrive Market are partnering with Care2 together to increase access to healthy food for all Americans.  The former Biggest Loser trainer has started a Care2 petition to demonstrate massive public support for a pilot program that would allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to use food stamps online. The SNAP online pilot program was initially scheduled to launch in early 2015 but will now likely not go live until 2017. More than 16,000 people have signed on to Jillian Michaels’ petition since it launched earlier this week.

“We’re talking about low-income families, many of whom are disabled, or working three jobs, or chronically ill. They want to eat healthy, but they’re limited to the highly processed foods available at their local store,” Michaels told Care2. “Online marketplaces like Thrive Market can change this by delivering healthy food to your door, saving time and transportation costs. But low-income families can’t access this healthy food if they can’t use their benefits online.”

A total of 45.4 million people currently participate in the SNAP program. Over 23 million U.S. citizens live in food deserts, or places where there is little or no access to healthy food. Half of those Americans are low-income.

“Getting Food Stamps online could help make food deserts a thing of the past. My Care2 petition is urging government benefits programs to catch up,” Michaels said.

The SNAP program has long lagged behind modern technology. The Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT), a system that allows the state to issue benefits via a payment card, was introduced in 1984 -- a whopping 18 years after the technology it’s based on, the debit card, came to market.

In recent years, there’s been a push for farmer’s markets to accept EBT cards, as well as some food delivery services, but these options still require SNAP recipients to be available in person to enter a PIN number for security purposes. This is the key reason EBT cards currently cannot be accepted online.

But Michaels and Thrive Market hope that, with the weight of her Care2 petition, the government will soon put infrastructure in place to change that.

“We know health starts with a solid diet, but too few retailers offer the organic, gluten-free, or other clean options Americans need,” Michaels said. “Expanding SNAP recipients’ access to online food retailers like Thrive Market should be a priority.”