2023 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Electronic Healthy Incentive Projects (EHIP)

Donor Name: Food and Nutrition Service

State: All States

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 03/31/2023

Size of the Grant:  Up to $25,000,000

Grant Duration: 4 years

Details:

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), authorized under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, is the cornerstone of the Nation’s nutrition assistance safety net. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) certifies low-income Americans to participate in the program and authorizes and monitors retailers to accept SNAP benefits for eligible food products. Currently, around 40 million low-income Americans receive SNAP benefits, and more than 250,000 retailers are authorized to accept SNAP benefits.

Section 1001 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, P.L. 117-2, (“ARPA”) authorized USDA $4,000,000,000 for Food Supply Chain and Agriculture Pandemic Response, including the ability to provide grants and other assistance to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency. The Department authorized $25,000,000, on a competitive basis, to enter into cooperative agreements with State agencies to carry out Electronic Healthy Incentive Projects (eHIP) under USDA’s Framework to Transform the Food System.

FNS reserves the right to make more than one award, and to use this competition to award additional grants in this or the subsequent fiscal year should additional funding become available.

The final HIP evaluation presented positive findings on the impacts of financial incentives for fruit and vegetable consumption and as a result, FNS has witnessed a significant increase in healthy foods incentives offered to SNAP households. In FY 2022, the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) awarded $38,700,000 to 8 organizations, to implement fruit and vegetable incentive projects to SNAP households; FNS approved six incentive waiver requests for independent retailers to offer fruit and vegetable incentives across seven States; and FNS awarded $3,000,000 for a grantee to implement a healthy milk incentive project across six States. The increased purchase for fruit and vegetables resulting from eHIP will maintain and strengthen the delivery infrastructure of such foods, benefitting supply chain resiliency.

While HIP tested the impact of financial incentives and the feasibility of EBT integration, eHIP will evaluate the administrative costs when administered at the State-level through the State’s EBT processor and compare these costs to other incentive programs. FNS’ goal is to maximize funds directed to SNAP households, establish methods for consistent and effective incentive delivery, and decrease overall administrative costs. The final eHIP project will be independently evaluated by an evaluation contractor competitively selected by FNS.

All eHIP projects must meet the following objectives:

• Develop and implement EBT integration to deliver and redeem eHIP incentives.
• Partner with SNAP-authorized retailer(s) to operate the point-of-purchase incentive solution in compliance with all relevant SNAP regulations and requirements.
• Communicate and promote eHIP incentive availability and information to SNAP households.
• Provide training and technical support to participating SNAP-authorized retailers in administering the incentives.
• Facilitate participation in the eHIP evaluation through data collection and sharing.
• Separately track, report, and fund eHIP benefits through modified versions of currently existing processes.

Priorities

According to USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), the food-at-home Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 11.9% from May 2021 to May 2022. In 2022, food-at-home prices were predicted to increase between 8.5 and 9.5 percent. As at-home food prices increase, access to safe, healthy, and affordable foods increasingly becomes more challenging for low-income families.

eHIP aligns with the USDA Strategic Plan (Goal 4) to make safe, nutritious food available to all Americans. FNS is committed to eliminating barriers to access nutrition assistance programs and prioritizing nutrition security. Nutrition security emphasizes providing Americans not just calories, but calories that matter for their health and well-being. This requires taking an equity lens to their efforts and having consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, affordable foods that are essential to optimal health.

Diet-related diseases hit hardest in communities with high food insecurity. According to the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), American Indian/Alaskan Natives , Black/African Americans , and Hispanic/Latino Americans are more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic whites, which is a risk factor for several diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

In addition to the general program purpose and priorities, FNS will prioritize applications who propose models that ensure incentives reach marginalized and/or high food insecurity communities such as:

• Tribal Nations and/or surrounding tribal communities.
• Rural communities as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Persistent poverty counties, as defined by USDA ERS Poverty Area Measures
• Low-income and low access census tracts, as defined by the USDA ERS Food Access Research Atlas

Funding Information

Expected amounts of individual Federal awards: Up to $25,000,000

Project Period

Anticipated start dates and period of performance: June 2023– December 31, 2027

Eligible Applicants

State governments

Additional Information on Eligibility

Eligible entities include the 53 State agencies who administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). State agencies in the process of re-procurement or conversion of their EBT systems will not be considered eligible applicants. Each eligible applicant may only submit one application in response to this grant solicitation.

For more information visit, Grants.gov.