SNAP Employment and Training Pilots
The Agricultural Act of 2014 authorized funding for states to carry out innovative pilot projects designed to raise employment, increase earnings, and reduce reliance on public assistance. These pilots will give USDA and states the opportunity to build on existing SNAP E&T programs and test new strategies to determine the most effective ways to help SNAP recipients gain and retain employment that leads to self-sufficiency. USDA has awarded pilot grants to 10 states through a competitive process. Collectively, selected projects are testing a range of job-driven strategies, including intensive sector-based approaches and career pathways that prepare workers for specific occupations; career navigation and job readiness; work-based learning; and comprehensive assessment and intensive case management. An independent, longitudinal evaluation of each pilot project is being conducted to measure the impact of E&T programs and services on participants’ earnings and employment. A report to congress summarizing the pilot operations and evaluation progress is issued annually until the evaluation is completed.
USDA Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center Cooperative Agreement
This RFA intends to select one institution/organization to establish the USDA Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center. The role of this Center will be to develop and administer a series of sub-grants pertinent to the purposes of this grant, coordinate relevant grant-related activities among sub-grantees and researchers, conduct an evaluation of sub-grantees’ programs, and widely disseminate information on communities’ implementation strategies and evaluation findings. The goal of the Center will be to reduce child food insecurity by improving Child Nutrition Assistance program coordination with other nutrition assistance programs or services in persistently poor rural counties.
Demonstration Projects to End Childhood Hunger
The purpose of the demonstration projects is to test innovative strategies to end childhood hunger, including alternative models for service delivery and benefit levels that promote the reduction or elimination of childhood hunger and food insecurity. Projects may include enhanced SNAP benefits for eligible households with children; enhanced benefits or innovative program delivery models in school meals, afterschool snacks programs, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program; and other targeted Federal, State or local assistance, including refundable tax credits, emergency housing, employment and training, or family preservation services, for households with children who are experiencing food insecurity.
The Role of the WIC Program in Improving Peri-conceptional Nutrition: A Small Grants Program
This grant opportunity focused on the roles that the WIC program is playing and can play in improving nutrition in pre-conceptional and peri-conceptional periods.
Assessment of the Contributions of an Interview to SNAP Eligibility and Benefit Determination
The purpose of this grant was to assess the impact of waiving the SNAP eligibility interview at certification and recertification on payment accuracy, program access, administrative costs and procedures, and on staff and client satisfaction.
Childhood Hunger Grants
In May 2011 the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, with funding from the Food and Nutrition Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, competitively awarded a first round of grants in the amount of $2.45 million to qualified individuals and institutions to provide rigorous research that expands our understanding of hunger among children in the United States and the attendant policy implications.
Healthy Incentives Pilots
Authorized by the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP) will test and rigorously evaluate the impact of financial incentives at the point-of-sale for the purchase of fruits and vegetables on the diet quality of participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Summer Food for Children Demonstrations
The Summer Food for Children Demonstrations are a series of projects, authorized by Congress under the 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Act, to develop and test methods of providing access to food for low-income children in urban and rural areas during the summer months when schools are not in regular session.
WIC Special Project Grants
FNS awards WIC Special Project Grants to be used for "special State projects of regional or national significance to improve the services of the program." In order to meet the statutory objectives, Special Projects need to address issues of critical and timely importance to the WIC program.