Assistance program
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
$815.9 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Food and Nutrition Service, Agriculture, Department of
- Assistance
- Direct Payments for Specified Use
- CFDA number
- 10.551
- What it does
- SNAP Benefits: Improve nutrition of eligible low-income households by ensuring access to nutritious, healthful diets through the issuance of monthly benefits that are used for the purchase of food at authorized retailers as well as nutrition education. Contingency Fund: Placed in reserve for use only in such amounts and at such times as may be necessary to carry out program operations. Enables the program to react to shifts in program need that were not anticipated at the time of a budget request. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA): This project ended in FY2014. The purpose of this project was to stimulate the economy following the Great Recession. Healthy Incentive Pilot: This project ended in FY2014. The purpose was to determine if incentives provided to SNAP recipients at the point-of-sale increase the purchase of fruits, vegetables or other healthful foods.
- Who benefits
- Applications for SNAP are made through a local social services agency which determines eligibility and benefit amount. Eligibility is based on household size, income, and expenses. Eligibility is also based on assets, citizenship or legal immigration status, and other factors. A gross income test is based on 130 percent of the poverty line, and the net income (after expenses) test is based on 100 percent of the poverty line. Households with elderly and disabled members need only meet the net income test. The FY25 resource limit is $3,000 ($4,500 for a household with an elderly or disabled member). A total of 44 States use broad-based categorical eligibility to align the resource limits and gross income limits with other mean tested programs. Able-bodied adults with certain limited exceptions must meet a work requirement or face time limits on participation.
- Who applies
- SNAP Benefits: SNAP is a Federal program administered by the States. The State or U.S. Territory agency responsible for Federally aided public assistance programs submits requests for funding to USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. Contingency Fund: Placed in reserve for use only in such amounts and at such times as may be necessary to carry out program operations. Enables the program to react to shifts in program need that we not anticipated at the time of a budget request. ARRA: This project ended in FY14. Healthy Incentive Pilot: This project ended in FY14. The purpose was to determine if incentives provided to SNAP recipients at the point-of-sale increase the purchase of fruits, vegetables or other healthful foods.
- Authorized by
- Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008; Food and Nutrition Act of 1977, as amended, Public Law 95- 113, 91 Stat. 958, 7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.; Public Law 95-348, Public Law 96-58, Public Law 96-249, Public Law 97-35; Public Law 97-98; Public Law 97-253, Public Law 98-204, Public…
- 7 U.S.C. § 2013
- Program site
- http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/ ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how this program's money is paid out.
Direct payments
$815.9B
100%
Grants
$3.0M
<1%
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments