The purpose of this memorandum is to advise state agencies on the steps the Food and Nutrition Service will take to monitor and engage state agencies with poor SNAP initial application processing timeliness rates.
This policy memorandum provides guidance on data sharing activities that support targeted outreach and streamlined certification processes aimed at increasing WIC participation and retention. It expresses USDA FNS support of data sharing, provides an overview of data sharing relevant to WIC, summarizes WIC program guidance on sharing confidential WIC participant data, and lays the groundwork for future guidance and resources to help WIC state agencies expand outreach and streamline the
certification process.
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will discontinue the requirement for vendors to use high security seals to secure USDA Foods deliveries as of July 1, 2023.
This memorandum describes the provisions of the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act that affect SNAP. Section 2502 of the Act provides that Afghan nationals, citizens, or those who last habitually lived in Afghanistan who are granted parole between July 31, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022, are eligible to receive resettlement assistance, entitlement programs (including SNAP), and other benefits available to refugees admitted under section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
FNS has estimated the number of new discretionary exemptions each state has earned for FY 2023. States that operated under a statewide waiver of the ABAWD time limit did not earn any new exemptions.
As part of the WIC innovation and modernization efforts to be funded under ARPA, FNS will fund non-competitive grants to WIC State agencies to complete projects aimed at improving the WIC shopping experience, which is a well-documented pain point for WIC participants. The primary goal of funded projects must be to improve the shopping experience, as evidenced by increasing the redemption of WIC benefits, improving customer satisfaction, and/or improving participant access to vendors, including for underserved communities and individuals.
This memorandum provides implementation guidance for Sec. 401 of the “Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022,” signed into law on May 21, 2022. Sec. 401 extends SNAP eligibility to certain Ukrainian parolees.
FNS is committed to supporting WIC state agencies that are pursuing online ordering and online transactions. Bringing these shopping innovations to our participants is expected to improve the WIC shopping experience, increase equity in the program by allowing participants to shop like all other shoppers, and increase WIC benefit redemptions.
FNS has estimated the number of new discretionary exemptions each state has earned for FY 2022. States that operated under a statewide waiver of the ABAWD time limit did not earn any new exemptions.
On April 30, 2021, FNS issued a memo that SNAP Quality Control will resume nationwide starting July 2021, with special QC review procedures related to COVID-related adjustments, and provides state agencies with a blanket waiver regarding the QC face-to-face interview.