FNS Documents & Resources

This information collection is for activities associated with SNAP demonstration projects and the SNAP State Options Report, respectively.

This policy memorandum provides clarification to WIC state agencies on the initial authorization of vendors that derive more than 50 percent of their annual food sales revenue from WIC (above-50-percent or A50 vendors) as well as information on the requirements for A50 vendors following authorization. 

The Summer Food for Children Demonstrations are a series of projects to develop and test methods of providing access to food for low-income children in urban and rural areas during the summer months when schools are not in regular session.

This is a new collection for the contract Assessment of Mobile Technologies for Using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits (Mobile Payment Pilot evaluation). The purpose of the Mobile Payment Pilot evaluation is to assess the effects of five pilot projects that will allow SNAP participants to use mobile payments to purchase food as an alternate option to a physical electronic benefit transfer card.

Electronic Benefits Transfer is an electronic system that allows a SNAP participant to pay for food using SNAP benefits. When a participant shops at a SNAP authorized retail store, their SNAP EBT account is debited to reimburse the store for food that was purchased. EBT is in use in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

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. 

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided USDA with $390 million, available through FY 2024, to carry out outreach, innovation, and program modernization efforts to increase participation and redemption of benefits for both the WIC program and the WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program.

FNS is allowing WIC agencies to waive conducting compliance investigations of a minimum of five percent of the number of vendors authorized. 

FNS is allowing state agencies to postpone some vendor reauthorization actions by extending expiring vendor agreements by one year.

FNS is removing the requirement for onsite preauthorization visits and allowing these visits to be done onsite after the public health emergency and applicable state and local social distancing orders are lifted.