As Jobless Claims Soar, More Restaurants Might Finally Be Able to Accept SNAP Benefits

In an effort to help both food-insecure Americans and the struggling restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, Senator Chis Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Representative Jimmy Panetta (D-California) will propose legislation to allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to use their food benefits to purchase food from restaurants. Currently, provisions restrict most SNAP recipients to purchasing cold foods and ingredients; advocates for changing the program have long argued that the policy discriminates against those unable to cook and unnecessarily polices food choice.

“We have these twin crises: People are going hungry, and restaurants are going under,” says Sen. Murphy. “You address two problems with one simple, temporary change in law.”

An SNAP Restaurant Meal Program (RMP) has existed since the ’70s, and already allows homeless, elderly, or disabled people — populations more likely to face barriers to cooking — to use their food-assistance benefits to buy prepared meals from restaurants and stores. But currently, just three states, California, Rhode Island, and Arizona, participate in the voluntary program. Sen. Murphy and Rep. Panetta’s legislation would expand that existing system to cover all SNAP recipients during a nationally declared disaster or public health emergency, such as this one.

Murphy and Panetta plan to introduce the legislation, known as the SNAP COVID-19 Anti-Hunger Restaurant Relief for You Act of 2020, or the SNAP CARRY Act, at the next legislative session, which could be called as soon as next week. “I think we have to pull out all the stops to make sure people don’t go hungry right now,” says Murphy.

RMP has actually been the focus of expansion efforts since well before the COVID-19 crisis: California, Illinois, and Maryland all passed recent laws to allow RMP expansion to all SNAP recipients. But those states still need — and haven’t received — permission from the USDA to expand the program, and under the Trump administration, the department has appeared more interested in restricting SNAP benefits than expanding them.

In a letter on April 2, Sen. Murphy called on USDA director Sonny Perdue to expand RMP participation to all SNAP recipients until the end of the COVID-19 emergency. So has the Western Center on Law and Poverty, which has advocated for SNAP RMP expansion for over a decade. But the USDA hasn’t budged. “It’s a failure to lead in a time of crisis,” says Jessica Bartholow, a WCLP policy advocate.

Now Murphy and Panetta hope to legislate the solution. The National Restaurant Association, the National Council of Chain Restaurants, and Congressional Hunger Center have all expressed support. “This is a private-public partnership that works,” says Bartholow. “We have food rotting in restaurants and workers that want to work and can’t.”

SNAP CARRY would only apply to states, and restaurants, that opt into it. To sign on, a restaurant would need to offer a low-cost meal option, sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the state or county, and be equipped with a point-of-sale system that can process EBT transactions.

Critics of RMP expansion have often expressed concerns about SNAP recipients using benefits on unhealthy items like fast food. “I think there’s been some hesitancy in the past because the worry was only chain restaurants with fairly unhealthy menus would participate,” Murphy says. “But during this time, you’ll have a line of restaurants that want to be a part of this program.”

More food options could also relieve pressure on grocery stores and keep supply chains running smoothly, says representative Panetta. “It’s really killing three birds with one stone — because our restaurants get their fresh fruits and agriculture locally, and so it’s helping our farmers.”

• The Fight to Use Food Stamps for Restaurant Food [Civil Eats]