USDA to Invest in Online SNAP Shopping

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service is seeking applications for a $5 million competitive grant to help expand the number of retailers accepting SNAP benefits for online shopping. The grant winner, which will be announced this fall, is funded by the American Rescue Plan, and applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. EST on Sept. 6.

The Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program Electronic Benefits Transfer (​​​​​SNAP EBT) Modernization Technical Assistance Center grant will fund an organization that can offer technological support to retailers to make SNAP online shopping available and give SNAP participants a wider selection of retailers to choose from when shopping online for groceries, the USDA said in a statement July 7.

“Online grocery shopping is a vital resource that improves access and convenience for all, including low-income families,” said Stacy Dean, USDA’s deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. “We are excited about this grant’s potential to provide new and existing retailers with tools to redeem SNAP benefits in ways that improve customer service for SNAP participants, especially those that face barriers in traveling to a physical store.”

In the grocery space, larger retailers were the first to offer SNAP online purchasing, leaving smaller retailers without the technology or resources to enter the e-commerce space. Through this grant, the USDA “hopes the technical support provided will help these smaller, independent stores offer online purchasing for SNAP participants.” The USDA said it also hopes the expansion will give SNAP participants more choice, better serve rural communities and meet cultural food preferences.

Related:With Food Prices Rising, Schools Get New Purchasing Aid

According to the USDA, this past May saw a big jump in SNAP households that shopped online. “Just over 3 million SNAP households shopped online, which is a substantial increase from March 2020, when about 35,000 SNAP households shopped online,” it said. The USDA said it credits this increase in large part to its "swift expansion of the pilot program at the onset of the pandemic." The agency added that it has added approximately 130 retailers representing thousands of stores in the past two years.

“SNAP online purchasing is particularly important to the communities we serve because of continued fear of contracting COVID-19 in a grocery store, the risk of exposure to other transmissible diseases, accessibility issues both in store and with transportation, and pre-existing burdens on family caregivers,” said Cyrus Huncharek, senior public policy analyst at the National Disability Rights Network, in a statement.

Related:USDA Unveils Framework to Transform the Food System

Last month, the Biden Administration announced that the USDA will provide nearly $1 billion in additional funding to schools to support the purchase of American-grown foods for their meal programs. And on June 1, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the USDA’s Food Systems Transformation framework for shoring up the food supply chain and transforming the food system to be fairer, more competitive and more resilient.