USDA is requesting applications for a $5 million grant to expand the number of retailers offering Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits to online recipients.  The USDA Food and Nutrition Service will fund a selected organization to provide support to retailers supplying technology and systems to enable SNAP recipients to shop for groceries online.  As with many give-away programs, the grant is funded by the American Rescue Plan that added to the national debt and for which our children and grandchildren will be paying for decades.  The USDA is developing a pilot to allow SNAP consumers to use smartphones to buy groceries that can be paid for using electronic benefit transfer cards.

According to the USDA release in May, three million SNAP households shopped online reflecting expansion of the pilot program with 130 retail chains added to the system.

The justification for online shopping to "reduce the risk of exposure to COVID in a grocery store” is entirely spurious given that SNAP recipients are socializing in other locations.