Act Now to Protect SNAP in Your Store

File comments on proposed SNAP rule through a NACS webpage by May 18.

April 21, 2016

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – If implemented, the Food & Nutrition Service’s (FNS) proposed rule changing the requirements retailers have to meet to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will push tens of thousands of c-stores out of the program. To prevent this from happening, c-store owners and operators must tell FNS how the proposed changes will negatively impact their businesses and their ability to accept SNAP benefits.

NACS has launched a webpage to make it easier for convenience stores to submit comments on the proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It is essential that FNS hear from you.

After announcing a 30-day extension of the comment period, FNS has now given retailers until May 18 to file comments on the proposal.

The proposal, as drafted, will implement the provisions included within the 2014 Farm Bill, which require retailers to stock more varieties of products in four “staple food” categories: (1) meat, poultry, or fish; (2) bread or cereal; (3) vegetables or fruits; and (4) dairy. Specifically, retailers must stock at least seven different varieties of food items in each of the four staple food categories (before the 2014 Farm Bill, retailers had to stock 3 different varieties in each staple food category). Further, retailers will be required to offer at least one perishable food item in three of those categories rather than two. NACS supported these changes.

However, within the proposal, FNS also included several proposed changes that went significantly beyond the statutory requirements in the Farm Bill. Problematically, the proposal would make it so “multiple ingredient” items, such as lasagna or chicken pot-pie would not be counted in any staple food category and would not go toward a retailer’s “depth of stock” requirements. This is a dramatic change from current rules, which permit multiple ingredient items to be counted in one staple food category depending on the main ingredient. The proposal would also add a “stocking requirement” whereby retailers would always have to have six different units of any food item on display at any given time.

In addition, if 15% or more of a store’s total food sales come from items that are “cooked or heated on site before or after purchase,” that store, according to the proposal, would be automatically ineligible to participate in SNAP. This provision alone will push thousands of stores out of the program. 

The proposal will make it increasingly difficult for convenience retailers to participate in SNAP, thereby negatively impacting the many SNAP recipients that use their benefits at convenience stores. Many times, convenience stores are the only store that is close by or open late at night where SNAP beneficiaries can quickly buy necessary food items for their families.

Visit the NACS webpage so you can file comments today.

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