Fixing food deserts with a modern SNAP

To fight back against food deserts, online delivery services will help get healthy foods to low-income families.

The United States Department of Agriculture will begin a pilot program that will allow recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, to use online services to deliver groceries.

The two-year program starts in the summer. Right now, the pilot program is only in certain states. If it goes well, more states should follow.

Food deserts exist in every state, in both rural and urban communities. Many people who are on SNAP have only convenience stores from which to buy their family’s groceries.

Having a delivery service can help. It would make healthier food more accessible and give cheaper options for essential items.

This would benefit many in Texas.

More than 3.7 million Texans used SNAP in 2015, and USDA’s interactive map shows Texas is covered in food deserts. About 42 of them exist within the Interstate 820 loop alone.

This pilot program can’t get here fast enough.

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Fixing food deserts with a modern SNAP."