New York households can begin paying for groceries online with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits under a two-year pilot launched on April 18, 2019. But SNAP will not cover service or delivery charges. The U.S. Department of Agriculture limits the initial test to households with New York-issued electronic benefit transfer cards and deliveries within the state’s pilot areas—not every SNAP customer or every New York address. [S1]

Amazon and Walmart are participating at launch, USDA says, with ShopRite due to join early the following week. Amazon and ShopRite’s service covers the New York City area; Walmart’s online service is in upstate locations. A New York-issued EBT card alone is not enough: the retailer must also serve the household’s area and have begun participating. [S1]

The legal requirements described here come from the 2018 edition of the U.S. Code, retrieved later; its original online publication date has not been established. They provide the pre-existing statutory context, not a contemporaneous capture of the law on the pilot launch date. The fee restriction also creates work at checkout. Federal law requires retailers accepting SNAP online to keep benefits from paying delivery, ordering, convenience or other fees. At the time an order is placed, they must tell households about any such charge and explain that SNAP cannot pay it. The practical implication is that accepting benefits for the food does not settle the whole bill when a retailer charges a fee: that amount needs payment outside SNAP. Neither the launch announcement nor the statute establishes what an individual retailer will charge. [S1][S2]

The online-shopping provisions in 7 U.S.C. §2016(k) also require protections for privacy, ease of use, access and support similar to those for in-store transactions. Security must use technology the agriculture secretary considers appropriate and cost-effective, comparable to security in retail stores. These are requirements for the service, not evidence that every participating checkout has already satisfied customers. [S2]

Retailers seeking to take part in the demonstration must submit a plan for USDA approval. It must include a way to restrict benefits to eligible purchases, instructions for households on how online purchasing works and adequate testing before implementation. The law also calls for data to assess access, ease of use and program integrity, along with reports on progress, challenges and results. Adding an EBT payment option is therefore only one part of the retailer’s task. [S2]

USDA presents the pilot as a way to explore better food access, especially for people who have difficulty visiting stores. That is an aim, not a measured result at launch. The department says expansion will depend on a successful start and other pilot states being ready; wider retailer participation has no fixed timetable in the announcement. [S1]

Source documents

  1. USDA Launches SNAP Online Purchasing Pilothttps://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USFNS/bulletins/23f5190
  2. 7 U.S.C. §2016 — Issuance and use of program benefits, 2018 Editionhttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2018-title7/html/USCODE-2018-title7-chap51-sec2016.htm