FNS Documents & Resources

Recently, FNS has received a number of questions related to buying local meat, poultry, game, and eggs; this memorandum seeks to clarify the regulatory requirements related to food safety and answer specific questions related to these products with a series of questions and answers.

Informational webinar/Q&A on SNAP grants for states using third party income databases for verification.

FNS has recently been reviewing its SNAP waiver processes and procedures. This memo serves to notify SNAP state agencies that FNS is no longer approving new interest income verification waivers or extending existing waivers. 

FNS is issuing this memorandum in fulfillment of the commitment made in the preamble of the SNAP: Eligibility, Certification, and Employment and Training Provisions of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 final rule to provide additional guidance for state agencies on how to carry out the exclusion of certain military combat-related pay from income for purposes of SNAP eligibility determinations.

FNS offered state agencies the opportunity to test whether using Quarterly Wage Report data was sufficiently accurate to verify and project earned income in certain SNAP cases. Two state agencies, Texas and Utah, agreed to participate and run projects that ran through 2014 and 2015.

The Department of Defense Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program allows schools to use their USDA Foods entitlement dollars to buy fresh produce. The program, operated by DoD’s Defense Logistics Agency, began in SY 1994-95 as a pilot in eight states. As of 2013, schools in 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam participate; schools are anticipated to receive more than $100 million worth of produce through the program during SY 2012-13.

This supersedes the Jan. 7, 2010, version of the policy memo, Exclusion of Military Combat Pay. In addition to combat pay and other income received by deployed service members, this memorandum addresses Deployment Extension Incentive Pay.

This policy applies to all TANF-funded subsidized employment paid to SNAP clients or applicants in the form of wages, regardless of the source of TANF funding, including but not limited to funds available to states and Indian tribes through the Emergency Contingency Fund for state TANF programs.

A recently enacted law changes the treatment of the $25 supplemental weekly Unemployment Compensation payment authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2OO9 (ARRA) authorized.

This memorandum applies only to state agencies that include the following (or similar) wording on a SNAP application: "Failure to report or verify any of the above listed expenses will be seen as a statement by your household that you do not want to receive a deduction for the unreported expense."