Technology nonprofit mRelief has already helped people access nearly $1 billion in SNAP benefits since its inception, and now it is looking to food banks nationwide to help it unlock even more funds. The Chicago-based firm, founded in 2014, specializes in increasing awareness of SNAP and simplifying the bulky process…
Posts published in “SNAP+”
Legislation pending in California would supercharge the way healthy incentive programs (often known as Double Up Food Bucks) work, potentially having an outsized impact on the ability of SNAP recipients in the state to afford and eat more nutritious food. At the heart of the program is technology that automatically…
What’s the best way to strengthen SNAP? The sprawling program, which cost $113 billion in 2021 – nearly double the $60 billion spent in pre-pandemic 2019 – is guided by a vast set of rules and requirements. These stipulations ultimately dictate how many people are served by the program and…
A new food program introduced by the USDA draws on lessons learned from the Farmers to Families Food Box program to create an assistance program unlike any other in the hunger relief community. The traditional aims of USDA food programs – nutrition assistance and food security – are not the…
The USDA recently gave a nice boost to farm-to-food bank projects, awarding more than $7.5 million to support them, up from $3.7 million in each of the previous two years. But the Center for Science in the Public Interest thinks funding for such projects should increase to at least $25…
SNAP is already known to be effective at achieving its goals of reducing food insecurity and poverty. Now, new research suggests that the program is also bringing down healthcare costs — reducing Medicaid fees by as much as $2,360 per person. The new study, published in the Annals of Internal…
Not many food banks actively promote nutrition incentive programs that make fresh produce more accessible to low-income families. But the ones that do are seeing results that go well beyond increased produce consumption in their communities. These “Double Up Food Bucks” programs, which originated at farmers markets over 15 years…
Making good on its plan to shut down the Farmers to Families Food Box program and instead focus on existing distribution channels for charitable food, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it would invest $1 billion to support food banks. The aid, announced June 4, includes $500 million to purchase…
The newly named head of the USDA, Tom Vilsack, has introduced a new way of framing the issue of hunger relief in America: it’s about nutrition security, not just food security. Inadequate nutrition is leading to high rates of chronic disease including obesity, presenting nothing less than a potential national…