We published updates to the stocking standards required for most retailers authorized to accept SNAP benefits. Starting on Nov. 4, 2026, all retailers other than specialty stores (e.g., butchers, farm stands) will be required to comply with these standards or risk losing your ability to redeem SNAP.
In this letter, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service urges state agencies to strengthen program integrity in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) by implementing robust oversight, training, and monitoring measures to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse.
In this program guidance, Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke L. Rollins, strongly encourages child nutrition program operators to familiarize themselves with the key recommendations and consider how the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 can be incorporated into program meals and snacks to promote healthy outcomes and healthy families.
This memo provides state agencies with guidance on allowable use of advanced automation technologies.
This memorandum clarifies that telephonic and virtual fair hearings and administrative disqualification hearings are allowed, reminds state agencies of related requirements, and recommends various best practices when conducting telephonic or virtual hearings. This memo rescinds and supersedes previous telephonic hearing guidance provided in FNS policy memos 82-14 and 83-05.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a letter today encouraging all governors to invest in SNAP EBT cards with chip technology for their states.
FNS is pleased to announce that the X9 Committee ratified and published revised EBT standards in August 2024. Finalizing these standards is a significant step towards modernizing SNAP EBT technology and combating benefit theft. These technical standards provide the opportunity for states to implement EBT cards with chip technology.
The purpose of this memorandum is to advise state agencies on the steps FNS will take to monitor and engage state agencies with poor SNAP recertification application processing timeliness rates.
Through this rulemaking, FNS aims to improve the quality of race and ethnicity data collected and to ensure program benefits are distributed without regard to race, color, or national origin.
This communication is intended to provide states with information about a change in the FNS accounting process for obligating SNAP funds.