Although the federal 2014 Farm Bill authorized a pilot Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) online food purchasing program by early 2020 only a handful of states and retailers were onboarded.
In recent years, big box grocery retailers such as Walmart, Kroger, Meijer and Giant Eagle have allowed customers who pay with a credit or debit card to shop for food online, pay online and pickup “curbside.” In most cases this means that not only do customers not have to physically enter the store, they don’t have to get out of their vehicles. These COVID-19 friendly opportunities, however, have not always been afforded to all customers, with SNAP beneficiaries in most states unable to participate in the online purchasing program before the pilot concluded.
Since last spring, the SNAP online purchasing pilot grew exponentially—allowing SNAP beneficiaries to grocery shop and pay online using their Ohio Direction or Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transaction (P-EBT) card.
Until recently, the only retailers approved to accept SNAP payments online in Ohio were Walmart and Amazon, both of which offered delivery to certain ZIP codes for a fee that could not be paid for with SNAP benefits. In December 2020, the grocery shopping and delivery service Instacart announced a partnership with Aldi. The new partnership allows Instacart shoppers to use SNAP cards to buy groceries for same-day delivery and pickup at more than 1,000 Aldi stores nationwide, including in Ohio.
Learn more about this expansion and potential downfalls from our friend Hope Lane at The Center for Community Solutions HERE