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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Government Shutdown

All_EBT Offers New Tool to Help SNAP Recipients Budget Purchases

Among the many, many (many!) problems caused by the government shutdown, the 39 million people on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps) face an additional issue: they got their money early.

Typically earlier is better. But in this case, because of the shutdown and the machinations the Department of Agriculture put in place to fund the program, February benefits started being paid out last week, much earlier than normal. This earlier-than-normal distribution has states warning SNAP recipients that they’ll need to budget their purchases to last throughout February, if not longer should the shutdown continue so that funds are not available for March.

To help with that budgeting, All_ebt, which uses a combination of Facebook Messenger and virtual Visa cards so SNAP recipients can shop for groceries online, has launched a new tool to help those on food stamps plan ahead.

“Just within the last two weeks, there’s been a flood of people registered and signed up [for All_ebt],” said Eli Calderón Morin, Founder and CEO of All_ebt. “Now they are nervous about their benefits. How do they better control their spending?”

To access the new feature, those registered with All_ebt just need to send the company a note through the All_ebt Facebook Messenger bot asking for the feature to be turned on. Once activated, the budgeting feature does two things.

First, users can set the service up to receive notifications about their EBT balance either through Facebook Messenger or the All_ebt Android app. Users set the notification frequency to be daily, weekly or monthly to get running reminders of how much SNAP money they have remaining.

“Right now, they have no easy way to check their budget,” Calderón Morin said. “They have to call a 1-800 number and sit on the phone for ten minutes. There’s no way to get a daily notification saying ‘How much budget do I have left?'”

In addition to notifications, users can also set up a budget in All_ebt through Messenger or the app. Because All_ebt knows all about how much their users receive in benefits, the company can set up a spending plan for them. Additionally, it can provide users with a pie chart of how they are actually spending their money.

Without providing specifics, Calderón Morin says that All_ebt has grown and now serves people in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. He said that a “high percentage” of people on All_ebt have disabilities and are relying on the company’s technology to get the food they need. He also said that Amazon and Instacart are the top two places where All_ebt users grocery shop.

Though the shutdown has no end in sight, All_ebt is providing tools so people on food stamps can see–and plan for– their own situations a little more clearly.

Will the Government Shutdown Spur Sales of Plant-Based Burgers?

If you are one of those who think that the government is too big or there is too much regulation, a quick perusal of the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service press releases from 2018 shows just how much work they do to keep what you eat safe — and also that a lot of meat was recalled last year.

But now food inspectors from the USDA (which is responsible for inspections of meat, poultry and eggs) and the FDA are working without pay. First, let’s appreciate that fact since most of us in the private sector probably would not do the same. And even though the Secretary of the USDA took to Twitter to reassure people:

the fact of the matter is that not paying your employees for an indeterminate amount of time probably won’t yield better performance.

This sounds mercenary, but the government shutdown and the news that food inspectors might be disgruntled (rightfully!) couldn’t have come at a better time for plant-based burger companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

There are actually a number of factors converging at once that could make this a banner year for alterna-meat companies. First, sales of plant-based meats were already on an upswing: dollar sales of plant-based meat grew 23 percent from August 2017 to August 2018. A lot of this can be attributed to the fact that plant-based burgers taste better than ever, and are actually a decent substitute when it comes to the texture and feel of eating a burger. Our own Mike Wolf said he would give up meat burgers for the new Impossible burger, and all of us here at The Spoon can’t wait to try the new Beyond Meat Burger 2.0.

Despite all these advancements, 2018 was projected to be a record year for meat consumption in the U.S. But 2018 was also a year for numerous meat recalls, capping it all off with a raw beef recall that included twelve million pounds in December. Did that steady stream of recalls ultimately have an impact on what people purchased? Or are people just used to it now?

To be fair, one of the bigger recalls last year was for romaine lettuce, so it’s not like being plant-based is a magic wand that protects your product from foodborne illnesses.

While USDA food inspectors not getting paid probably isn’t top of mind for most people when they get groceries, every little bit of bad news contributes to an increasingly negative narrative about traditional beef. It’s bad for the environment, ethically complicated, gets recalled regularly, and now the people charged with keeping it safe aren’t getting paid.

I’m not cheering on a government shutdown (quite the opposite), but if it lasts and food safety issues stay in the headlines, it could be a boon for sales of plant-based alternatives. This potential boon would come at a time when Impossible is making the move to sell their burgers at retail and when Beyond Meat is preparing to go public. A successful IPO for Beyond will give them the money to expand their operations and pave the way for Impossible to IPO as well, which would fuel its own expansion.

We hope the shutdown ends soon and everyone can get paid, but until then we’ll be watching to see if it impacts the food choices people make.