FNS Documents & Resources

FSP legislative and regulatory provisions do not, either directly or indirectly, address the treatment of gift cards for program purposes. While these rules can potentially be interpreted to count gift cards as a resource, we believe this would be inadvisable since attempts to verify the existence and value of the cards during the certification process would be extremely difficult, problematic and subject to error.

This memorandum addresses questions recently raised about the allowable scope of formal state Food Stamp Program outreach plans. The specific issue is whether state FSP outreach plans may include activities directed to access and retention of current participants in addition to outreach and education efforts directed to nonparticipating persons.