What Happened?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will be awarding $31.5 million in grants to local, state and national organizations to support programs helping individuals receiving food assistance to purchase more fruits and vegetables.
Goal
The USDA is providing $31.5 million in funding to make it easier for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy fresh, healthy food. The grants will be administered through the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive program and support incentive strategies designed to encourage smarter purchases of fruits and vegetables.
The grants will be used to fund a variety of incentive projects ranging from small pilot programs to small and large multi-year initiatives. The USDA is awarding the grants to 26 states for up to four years for programs that provide incentives at the point of purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables. Policymakers will then evaluate all projects funded to extract best practices for encouraging SNAP participants to make healthy food purchases. Priority funding has been provided to programs that:
- Develop innovative or improved benefit redemption systems that can be replicated
- Use direct-to-consumer marketing
- Show previous success implementing nutrition incentive programs that connect low-income consumers with agricultural producers
- Provide locally or regionally-produced fruits and vegetables
- Are based in underserved communities
Furthermore, the winning programs must deploy effective technologies to improve benefit redemption systems and scale the initiatives to meet the needs of other states and communities.
Skills Training for SNAP Participants
The USDA is also awarding $200 million in competitive grants to fund and evaluate pilot projects helping SNAP participants find jobs and work toward self-sufficiency. The grants were awarded to 10 states launching pilot projects focused on workforce training specifically for SNAP participants with limited skills, no dependents and currently working in low-wage or part-time jobs.
The 10 pilot programs will receive funding for three years to test a variety of strategies to help SNAP participants improve their skill set and acquire higher-paying jobs. The different approaches include:
- Skills training
- Work-based learning
- Support services – transit, child care
Mathematica Policy Research and MDRC will then conduct evaluations of the 10 projects to assist the USDA in identifying which strategies are most effective at boosting a diverse population of SNAP participants. Once best practices have been recognized, the USDA can provide clear guidance on how to deploy similar strategies in other communities across the country.
In Delaware, for example, an $18.8 million grant from the USDA will be used to support its Work Opportunity Networks to Develop Employment Readiness (WONDER) program. The Delaware Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Social Services will offer targeted career tracks in:
- Construction
- Culinary arts
- Manufacturing
- Broad-based job placement
The job training will be available for about 20 percent of the state’s SNAP participants, or roughly 1,770 individuals each year. Half of the participants will receive new specific training services and half will receiving existing employment training services. The research project will compare the outcomes of both groups to determine the efficacy of the new training services.
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