Most of the 42 million Americans who receive food stamps aren’t allowed to use them to shop for groceries online — and some lawmakers and state governments are rushing to change that as the newly jobless flood onto the rolls of the nutrition assistance program.
Yet it's unclear how quickly USDA will be able to move. A department spokesperson told POLITICO that the department will work with states to help them offer online shopping through the SNAP program. California is one state that has requested permission from USDA to build a program. New York became the first state to introduce a program for online grocery orders only last year. It was followed by Washington, Alabama, Iowa and Oregon. Nebraska’s program launched last week. Maryland and New Jersey were also named as participants in the pilot program, but they haven’t started offering online ordering yet.
Alabama moved up the introduction of SNAP online ordering statewide because of concerns about how recommendations to stay home affects people’s ability to buy food, said Brandon Hardin, director of the Food Assistance Division at the state’s department of human resources.and the program expanded to other vendors and the rest of the state when the pandemic spread, he said.
Washington state, which was one of the first places to be hit by the pandemic, has seen a similar increase in signups, and officials expect participation in online ordering to rise as the outbreak continues, said Babs Roberts, director of the Community Services Division. Application rates for the state’s food assistance programs have soared about 80 percent in the last two weeks, she said.
The GOP likes us to get sick, so I don’t expect this to go anywhere.
They need to get out of the USA !
Women & Mens who is on “Food-Stamps” 1)) they “Lied about much much they made” 2). A lot of Mexican are not from the USA 3) we are the people of America have to pay 4). Is that Right. ! 5). yes Or 7). NO
Sounds like they're trying to reinvent the wheel trying to figure out how to do this but all they need to do is allow instacart and shipt to accept EBT. Some states do this already so this isn't rocket science. Wish they'd hurry. I'm gonna need groceries soon
stores have been opening an hour early JUST for seniors to shop by themselves, they r literally the most vulnerable, their children r shopping for them & even neighbors why didn't they just order them online if it is that easy & affordable. why r we letting our seniors shop?
joshtpm A good step, but online services charge more than going to the store. This needs to be addressed too.
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