By Rachel Gragg, Senior Technical Advisor, USDA Food and Nutrition Service
Most Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants who can work already do. SNAP’s food assistance benefits are critical to helping these workers put food on the table as the jobs they hold often pay low wages, offer unreliable hours, and don’t provide benefits like paid sick leave. Reliable, high-quality work is a powerful way out of poverty, and USDA’s SNAP Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) helps gain professional skills and connections to better employment opportunities.
While SNAP state agencies are responsible for operating SNAP E&T programs, they work closely with other partners who have expertise in building strong employment programs like the Department of Labor, local job centers, and SNAP E&T professionals.
In 2020, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service awarded a SNAP E&T National Partnership Grant to the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) to provide technical assistance to state and local workforce development boards, so they can become SNAP E&T providers. Since then, NAWB has continued its work to expand SNAP E&T’s footprint.
We all have a shared goal of matching job seekers with sustainable employment opportunities, and it only makes sense to bring everyone’s strengths to the table. Most conversations about SNAP E&T and its broader connection to the workforce development system often begin by identifying the differences between E&T and other workforce programs; however, our partnership with NAWB has highlighted many opportunities for partnership.
These important conversations are just some of the ways USDA is working to connect SNAP E&T participants to jobs and careers that offer a way out of poverty.
To learn more about the SNAP E&T program, visit the USDA SNAP E&T website.
