USDA is committed to providing nutrition assistance to hard-hit families across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic. In support of President Biden’s call to action on hunger, USDA announced that it is increasing the Pandemic EBT benefit by approximately 15 percent, providing more money for low-income families and millions of children missing meals due to school and child care closures.
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.
USDA has issued guidance to states in implementing FFCRA of 2020 which provides for the issuance of emergency allotments based on a public health emergency declaration by the Secretary of HHS under the Public Health Service Act related to an outbreak of COVID-19 when a state has also issued an emergency or disaster declaration.
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.
USDA is committed to providing nutrition assistance to hard-hit families across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic. In support of President Biden’s call to action on hunger, USDA announced that it is increasing the Pandemic EBT benefit by approximately 15 percent, providing more money for low-income families and millions of children missing meals due to school and child care closures.
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 waives, for all states, the requirements to serve meals that meet specified meal pattern requirements during the public health emergency due to COVID–19. This waiver applies to state agencies administering and local organizations operating the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs. These flexibilities also apply to the National School Lunch Program Seamless Summer Option.
This policy memorandum transmits the Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) inflation adjustment for 2021 for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The adjustment was published in the Federal Register as part of the Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2021 Final Rule published on May 10, 2021, at 86 FR 24699.
Any firm may request administrative and judicial review, if it is aggrieved by any of the actions described in SNAP regulations. The Administrative Review Branch ensures that FNS follows the provisions of the Food and Nutrition Act, SNAP regulations, and agency retailer policy, and that the agency's administrative actions are equitable and consistent.