Many of you have heard how I’d like to see the USDA’s food stamp program (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) hard-wire better nutrition into the program by beginning to include nutritious food inventory criteria for SNAP vendors. To help make the case, we contracted with the ASU School of Nutrition & Health Promotion to write a White Paper that outlines  evidence-based strategies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of SNAP including: 1) improving access to healthy foods to provide better choices; 2) incentivize purchase of healthy foods; restricting access to unhealthy foods; and 3) maximizing education to more effectively reach a larger population of SNAP participants. 

Our own Karen Sell and Punam Ohri-Vachaspati from ASU presented the PowerPoint at the top of our SNAP Reform webpage in San Francisco at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting.  The PPT summarizes the White Paper called Policy Considerations for Improving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Making a case for Decreasing the Burden of Obesity which was also distributed at the conference.  We’re getting some traction!