Online SNAP in the Last Frontier

Grocery Tech Basket is the new WGB column from Tech Editor Timothy Inklebarger, exploring the week's biggest developments in grocery technology. 

It’s been a big year for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Electronic Benefits Transfer for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (EBT SNAP), starting in March with the rollback of pandemic-era emergency allotment benefits. 

The program was further tightened this summer with passage of the federal Fiscal Responsibility Act, which caps discretionary spending and puts in place new work and age requirements for able-bodied SNAP recipients. 

But what does technology (the focus of this column) have to do with SNAP benefits? 

While the budget bill and elimination of emergency allotments have made it more difficult for some recipients to receive benefits, technological advances in online SNAP payments are something to celebrate.  

In June, Alaska became the 50th state to allow online purchases via SNAP, and the number of vendors in the Last Frontier is quickly growing. At the time of the mid-June announcement, Target was the only vendor in the state capable of processing the online SNAP orders. As of press time, the USDA reports that three more—Walmart, Safeway and Amazon—had been added to the list.  

And on Thursday, Instacart announced that it has expanded its online SNAP processing capabilities to all 50 states. That includes seven Safeway locations in Alaska.  

“With the launch of online SNAP acceptance in Alaska, we’re helping more people nourish themselves and their families.” said Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of Instacart Health, in a statement. “Online SNAP acceptance on our marketplace offers families flexibility, convenience and dignity of choice, and we’re proud to partner with Albertsons Companies to bring these benefits to Alaskans.” 

The editorial team at Winsight Grocery Business published an in-depth series on SNAP benefits in mid-July titled “The SNAP Factor” where experts discussed the difficulty many SNAP recipients face in simply making it to the grocery store.  

Ofek Lavian, co-founder and CEO of Forage, one of a handful of companies certified by the USDA to process online SNAP payments, told me in an interview that many recipients do not have easy access to a grocery store, and one in every five households in the country has a family member with a disability, which further complicates their efforts to make it to a brick-and-mortar location.  

Those issues are much more pronounced for residents in places like Alaska, where proximity to a store is only one of the difficulties in getting fresh groceries. Try doing it in Fairbanks, where the temperature regularly hits -20°F in the dead of winter. Oh, and did I mention it's dark there all winter? 

Getting to the grocery store, especially without a car or the money for rideshare, can literally be a life-and-death proposition. That means SNAP dollars are spent at the closest available location—often a convenience store that has little if no produce or healthy food options.  

Access to food is crucial in places like Alaska, where one out of every nine people rely on SNAP benefits, according to the state. “Families need food security, and we’re pleased that Alaskan families now have another way to access nutritious meals and fresh food options,” said Alaska Department of Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg in a statement in June. 

Meanwhile, online SNAP is spreading rapidly to smaller stores through the efforts of Lavian’s Forage and others bringing in smaller grocers. In June, Instacart competitor DoorDash began accepting online SNAP payments with its partner retailers Aldi, Albertsons, Safeway and Meijer. And new grocers are integrating the technology on a weekly basis.  

It’s a positive development in a time when inflation has many consumers scraping to make ends meet and grocers are working harder than ever to make connections with their customers.