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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

SNAP

Stor.AI’s Software Now Allows Grocers to Accept SNAP Payments Online

Stor.AI (formerly Self Point), which makes digital commerce software for grocery stores, announced a new feature this week that allows stores of any size to accept online payment for Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP) participants.

The new capability allows stores to accept payments through Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) payment cards, split payments across multiple methods, and add virtual tags to an online store showing which items are EBT-eligible.

Up until a couple years ago, SNAP participants were unable to use their EBT card to shop for groceries online, exacerbating digital inequality. In 2018, a startup called All_ebt helped SNAP participants shop for groceries online through a combination of Facebook Messenger and Virtual Visa cards.

The U.S. government got involved in April of 2019, when the USDA launched a pilot program allowing SNAP participants to grocery shop online. That pilot involved a limited number of states and retailers like Amazon and Walmart.

When the pandemic hit the U.S. last year, people were encouraged to stay home and take fewer trips to the grocery store. The inability for SNAP participants to shop for groceries online and forcing them to shop in stores made the issue not just about inequality, but also safety.

Thankfully, SNAP-enabled shopping online got a big boost in 2020, with Kroger accepting SNAP for pickup, Amazon and Walmart expanding EBT payment acceptance across the country, and Instacart partnering with ALDI for grocery delivery to SNAP participants.

With today’s Stor.AI news, even more SNAP participants will be able to buy groceries online. Smaller, neighborhood stores of all shapes and sizes will now be able to accept EBT payments and serve more customers.

These moves, of course, don’t eliminate the inequalities present in our current food system. They are, however good steps towards bridging the digital divide and allowing more people to benefit from the modernization of grocery retail.

Instacart and ALDI Expand Online EBT Grocery Purchases to 23 More States

Grocery delivery service Instacart announced today that it is expanding its partnership with supermarket chain ALDI to make online grocery shopping and delivery available to EBT SNAP participants across 23 more states and Washington D.C.

Starting today, those on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can use their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card to pay for groceries and get delivery from roughly 1,000 more ALDI stores from these new service areas:

Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, D.C., West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Instacart kicked off this program with ALDI back at the end of October when it launched a pilot program at more than 60 stores in Georgia. Earlier this month, the program expanded to more than 570 stores in California, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.

We explained how the program works back when the Instacart/ALDI SNAP program kicked off, writing:

SNAP participants will be able to shop from ALDI through Instacart’s website or mobile app. When creating a profile, they can enter their EBT card information and a payment method, which will cover the cost of SNAP-approved food items. Taxes, tips and fees cannot be paid for with the EBT, so a second form of payment will also be needed. Once all that is set up, SNAP participants can shop for items and schedule their grocery delivery.

While giving SNAP participants the ability to participate in digital grocery shopping is an important step towards bringing more equity to our food system, Instacart’s program isn’t without its shortcomings. We lamented at the time of the pilot launch how a second form of payment was required for taxes, fees and tips. There are legal reasons for this, but it seemed like forcing families in need pay for delivery fees and tips could be a barrier to adoption. Or, in the case of tips, would Instacart’s gig “Shoppers” avoid jobs that don’t tip as well?

Instacart addressed some of these issues with today’s expansion. Per the press announcement:

New with this expansion and to help subsidize costs for EBT SNAP beneficiaries, during a 90 day period starting December 16, 2020, Instacart will waive delivery fees on up to the first three EBT SNAP orders for each customer with a valid EBT card associated with their Instacart account. ALDI pickup via Instacart costs $1.99 for orders over $35.

I mean, I know Instacart is a business and not a charity, and this is better than nothing. But for a company that raised $2.4 billion in venture money, and it being the holidays and all, it seems like it could have been a little more generous. Especially with the hunger and food insecurity surging across the U.S. right now.

SNAP Participants Can Now Use Benefits to Pay for Grocery Delivery with Instacart

Instacart announced today that it has partnered with grocery retailer ALDI to allow those on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to use their Electronic Benefits Transfer card to pay for and get groceries delivered.

The pilot program is launching first in Georgia where, according to Instacart’s announcement, 12.5 percent of the population is impacted by food insecurity, disproportionately affecting communities of color. The program will begin with 60 ALDI stores in Georgia before a planned expansion to more than 570 stores across Illinois, California, Florida, Pennsylvania in the coming months.

SNAP participants will be able to shop from ALDI through Instacart’s website or mobile app. When creating a profile, they can enter their EBT card information and a payment method, which will cover the cost of SNAP-approved food items. Taxes, tips and fees cannot be paid for with the EBT, so a second form of payment will also be needed. Once all that is set up, SNAP participants can shop for items and schedule their grocery delivery.

Online grocery shopping took off during the pandemic, as people were concerned about venturing into public places like grocery stores. Those fears have subsided somewhat, but grocery e-commerce is still projected to hit $250 billion in sales by 2025.

Instacart’s partnership with ALDI is the latest effort to bring more equity to the online grocery world. Low income communities are often food desserts that lack access to fresh food. The ability to shop online and have groceries delivered is one way to help those impacted by food insecurity eat more healthily. For the past couple of years, the startup All_EBT has been using Facebook Messenger and virtual Visa cards to allow SNAP participants to shop online. And both Amazon and Walmart have expanded their EBT online grocery shopping to more states.

The only downside to Instacart’s program is that it still requires SNAP participants to pay for taxes, fees and tips. Those three items alone can add up and that seems like it might be a barrier to get more people to use the program. While the EBT card couldn’t be used to cover these costs, it’s a little disappointing that Instacart, which has raised $2.4 billion, isn’t doing more to supplement them for the end user. It seems like Instart’s gig workers who do the actual packing and delivery, might skip jobs that don’t offer a healthy tip, especially since the pandemic has yet to subside in this country.

Amazon Expands Online SNAP EBT Purchasing to 36 States

Amazon announced today that online grocery shopping for people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is now available in 36 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Toward the end of May, the USDA had announced that it was expanding the online SNAP purchasing program to 36 states, which it said would cover 90 percent of SNAP participants. In addition to wider availability, the USDA press release said, “Soon more SNAP authorized retailers, under multiple store banners, will be accepting SNAP benefits online.”

Amazon seems to be first out of the gate to announce its participation. In a press release, Amazon wrote:

SNAP recipients in Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming can now use their benefits to shop for groceries on Amazon and other participating retailers.

We checked Walmart’s website to see how broad its acceptance of SNAP is across the U.S., but only found an update from the company in April listing just 19 states plus D.C. We have reached out to Walmart for more information. UPDATE: A spokesperson for Walmart said that it accepts online SNAP payments in 36 states plus D.C..

In April of this year, Kroger launched its own program to accept online SNAP payments at 2,000 of its grocery pickup locations.

In addition to bringing out more digital and food equity, the expanded ability of SNAP participants to purchase groceries online is coming at a critical time. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive unemployment and loss of income, and created new exposure risks for people to physically go into a grocery store. The ability for those in need to purchase groceries online and get them delivered can help with both of those things.

Amazon Adds 11 More States Where SNAP Participants Can Buy Groceries Online

Amazon announced yesterday that it has expanded the number of states in which supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) participants can buy groceries online through the retail giant. (h/t TechCrunch)

In a blog post yesterday, Amazon wrote:

Eleven states have been added the U.S. Department of Agriculture pilot enabling Amazon customers to use SNAP benefits to purchase groceries online (Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin). We are committed to making food accessible through online shopping and we look forward to adding more states soon. Read about the program.

Amazon now offers SNAP purchasing in 25 states, plus the Washington DC area. Through the program, SNAP participants can pay for groceries online using their electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card. Other retailers in the program have included Walmart and ShopRite.

The ability for SNAP participants to purchase groceries online has always been an important issue. Many low-income families live in food deserts and are unable to access fresh, healthy food. The ability to have food delivered can not only lead to healthier lifestyles but also helps provide at least some equity when it comes to digital access to online grocery shopping.

The ability to shop for groceries online became more important these past couple of months as the COVID-19 pandemic made trips to the grocery store potentially deadly. People without access to delivery or curbside pickup are putting themselves at risk of contracting the disease.

Another startup looking to help SNAP participants get their groceries more safely online is All_EBT. That company uses a combination of virtual Visa cards and Facebook Messenger to allow people to purchase SNAP approved items from any online retailer.

There is still a lot of work left to be done when it comes to issues around food and digital equity, and expansion of services like Amazon’s are good first steps.

Food Tech News: Kroger to Accept SNAP for Pickup, KFC China Goes Plant-based

It can be a bright spot to think that even when everything is turned upside down in the food world, companies are still coming up with creative ways to stay afloat and help folks have access to healthy food.

In this week’s food tech news roundup we’ve got stories on just that. There are bits about Kroger ramping up SNAP acceptance for pickup, healthy meal services pairing up with fitness classes, and KFC in China dipping its toe into plant-based meat. Enjoy!

Kroger to accept SNAP payments for grocery pickup
Kroger will accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments at all 2,000 of its grocery pickup locations by the end of the month (h/t FoodDive). Consumers can select the “SNAP/EBT” option when ordering groceries online, then use their EBT card to pay for covered items when they pick up. Thus far, the service is only available at the chain’s Ohio stores. This comes as Kroger bulks up its pickup service, adding slots, hiring workers, and waiving pickup fees.

Photo: Trifecta

Meal service Trifecta partners with Basecamp Fitness
Trifecta, an organic premade meal delivery service, is teaming up with Basecamp Fitness to deliver healthy meals to their members’ doors. Per an email sent to The Spoon, Trifecta will offer subscribers six types of meals — keto, paleo, vegan, etc. — as well as an à la carte section that operates like a miniature online grocery store. Trifecta is already geared towards healthy, fit people looking to eat to sustain their workout, so it makes sense to partner with a fitness service that’s essentially a captive audience (literally and figuratively).

Photo: KFC

KFC to offer plant-based fried chicken in China
Yum China, the parent brand of KFC, announced this week that it would begin selling plant-based fried chicken at select KFC locations in China. The nuggets will come from Cargill, which only recently launched its own alternative meat brand, and will be available in three locations from April 28-30th. A five-pack of the nuggets will cost 1.99 yuan ($0.28 USD).

Study: Online Grocery Shopping Could Help Alleviate Food Deserts

A study out from Yale University this week found that online grocery shopping could help people in food deserts get access to more healthy food choices.

The study, led by Eric, J. Brandt, MD and titled Availability of Grocery Delivery to Food Deserts in States Participating in the Online Purchase Pilot, looked at the eight states that are part of the Online Purchase Pilot (OPP) provision of the 2014 Farm Bill that allows people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to purchase groceries online. That online buying provision could go nationwide after the trial ends in 2021.

From Yale’s study:

Among 8 states participating in the USDA’s OPP, online grocery purchasing and delivery services were available to more than 90% of urban food desert census tracts and SNAP households within them, but these services were rarely available in rural food desert census tracts. Our results suggest that existing grocery delivery networks, when combined with online grocery-purchasing, could potentially strengthen access to groceries in many areas where it is most lacking. However, grocery delivery fees are not covered by SNAP and may deter online purchasing.4 To help maximize OPP benefits in food desert census tracts, the USDA could consider extending SNAP benefits for both online grocery purchasing (as in the OPP) and delivery, although rural areas may be least affected.

The eight states examined were Alabama, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington.

Brandt’s study is coming out at the same time the Trump administration is looking to tighten rules around who can receive SNAP benefits. Just today, the Department of Agriculture gave final approval of that would kick 755,000 out of the federal food stamp program. As The New York Time reports:

The rule, which was proposed in February, makes it more difficult for states to allow able-bodied adults without children to receive food assistance for more than three months out of a 36-month period without working.

Thankfully, for those on the SNAP program living in a food desert, All_ebt is a startup that can help facilitate online grocery shopping. All_ebt uses a combination of Facebook Messenger and virtual Visa cards that allow people to purchase SNAP approved items online (though there is still the matter of the delivery fee). Earlier this year, during the government shutdown, All_ebt also released budgeting tools to help those on SNAP manage their money.

While online grocery shopping is still a small part of overall grocery purchases, retailers are putting in the infrastructure to make ordering and fulfillment faster and more automated. Things like robotic micro-fulfillment promise to turnaround online orders for delivery faster. If more people in food deserts can get groceries delivered same day, that’s more revenue for the retailer. More importantly, it can mean an easier way to a healthier life for those living on SNAP.

As Brandt told Yale News “If you live in a food desert, online grocery delivery really stands out as a way to get healthy food that potentially can save your life.”

The USDA Launches Its Pilot Enabling SNAP Users to Grocery Shop Online

Today, the USDA announced the launch of a pilot program that will make online grocery shopping available to those receiving SNAP benefits. According to the official press release, “lessons learned from this pilot are expected to inform future efforts to expand online purchasing in SNAP.”

To start, the program allows those SNAP users in the state of New York with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards (also issued by New York) to order groceries online, for either pickup or delivery. These users will be able to buy USDA-approved food products (No booze, for example.) SNAP benefits do not cover service or delivery fees.

As of right now, the USDA is working with Amazon as well as Walmart on the program. Regional chain ShopRite will join next week. For now, Amazon and ShopRite are piloting the program in New York City only; Walmart is serving upstate New York areas. In the coming months, the pilot will expand to other areas of New York as well as Alabama, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington, the press release stated.

The program is launching at a time when online grocery is growing rapidly. Nielsen recently revealed that roughly a quarter of Americans buy groceries online, and that number will jump to 70 percent over the next few years.

But the roughly 39 million Americans using SNAP (also known as Food Stamps), have largely been left out of this brave new world of online shopping. A startup called All_ebt made some progress at the end of 2018 by using Facebook Messenger and virtual Visa cards to help SNAP users shop online.

Now, however, it seems the Feds are finally starting to recognize on a national level the need to include lower-income and underbanked populations, who have the same busy schedules as anyone else, or may suffer from disabilities that make physically going to a grocery store challenging.

USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue called this need out in the press release:

“People who receive SNAP benefits should have the opportunity to shop for food the same way more and more Americans shop for food — by ordering and paying for groceries online. As technology advances, it is important for SNAP to advance, too, so we can ensure the same shopping options are available for both non-SNAP and SNAP recipients.”

As online grocery continues to grow, retailers would be wise to join in these initiatives to include SNAP users and others on assistance programs, or risk facing the kind of backlash Amazon recently got over its Go stores, which many have seen as discriminating against lower-income and underbanked households. We expect other major grocery retailers to join the SNAP program in future, so stay tuned.

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.

All_ebt to Open Second Pop-Up Store, Has Amazon Go-Like Ambitions

All_ebt, the Los Angeles startup that helps people on food stamps purchase groceries and other approved goods online, is going bi-coastal and adding a second pop-up store in Charlotte, NC this summer.

These pop-up stores are small, temporary and don’t carry a ton of inventory. Their primary mission is community outreach, and providing a physical place where low income families can come in and get in-person training on how to use All_ebt’s online payment system.

We wrote about All_ebt’s mission to expand the shopping options for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants earlier this year. The company uses Facebook Messenger and virtual Visa cards to allow low-income people to more fully participate in the digital economy by giving them the ability to shop online at places like Amazon Fresh or Safeway–something they can’t do directly with their benefits card.

“The people that are on food stamps aren’t ignorant,” said All_ebt Founder Eli Calderón Morin, “They have a higher capacity for technology than we assume. They use mobile differently because it’s their primary device.”

The new Charlotte pop-up store will open on June 15th in the Packard Place building. It will carry roughly 90 different Women, Infant, Children (WIC) items (milk, cheese, produce), and Morin said that the Charlotte City Council has been an enthusiastic supporter of the project. From there, Morin plans to open up even more temporary pop-up stores around the country.

But Morin isn’t just looking at geographic expansion, he’s also thinking quite a bit about the future of payments. All_ebt was accepted into the Queen City Fintech accelerator program (which also happens to be at Packard Place). That acceptance came with a $20,000 check that Morin will use to help build out the service, part of which includes adding computer vision talent to his roster. Morin wants that expertise to help build out an Amazon Go-like experience for SNAP participants.

With all these efforts, Morin is attempting to use technology to help remove the stigma and, in doing so, any embarrassment that can arise when shopping with food stamps. By opening up shopping opportunities online, low income families can shop from the privacy of their home. By connecting All_ebt with computer vision-driven Amazon Go-like payment systems, SNAP participants can grab what they need and go without having to go through any potentially complex administrative process of paying with food stamps at the checkout.

But Morin admits that an Amazon Go-like ideal experience is still years down the road. A more immediate use for computer vision was just created at the recent Facebook F8 hackathon, where All_ebt built a way for customers to use the cameras on their phones to get nutritional information and other data about items, including produce. That feature won the company another $3,000 for its coffers.

All_ebt’s work comes at an ominous time for SNAP participants. The new farm bill making its way through Congress would impose stricter work requirements for recipients. In February, the Trump administration suggested replacing some food stamps with boxed delivery of food. And more recently, the startup Propel, which let food stamp recipients check their account balance, has been hobbled as it ran into trouble with a government food stamp database contractor.

All of this actually makes Morin’s work more important, and thanks to All_ebt’s worth with the accelerator and Facebook, that work will become more widespread.

Trump’s Meals in a Box Plan for SNAP Participants is Full of Baloney

In an effort to cut spending on food assistance to low-income families, the Trump administration has proposed replacing some food stamps with a meal delivery type service. The Supplemental Nutrition Assitance Program (SNAP), often colloquially referred to as food stamps, provide a monthly supplement for purchasing healthy food to eligible, low-income families.

Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney said these meal deliveries would be akin to Blue Apron, but the comparison is downright laughable when you look at what the government actually proposes.

Blue Apron customers get to choose their meals and receive insulated boxes of fresh proteins and vegetables. According to The Washington Post, recipients of “America’s Harvest Boxes” would get “shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned meat, fruits and vegetables.” All these items would be homegrown by “American farmers and producers” for that added jingoistic je ne sais quoi.

For households receiving more than $90 per month in benefits (that’s 81% of SNAP households overall), half of those benefits would come in the form of these government-provided boxes.

Mulvaney defends the approach, saying that the government can buy food wholesale at a low cost, which is more economical than having people buy it directly at retail. Which technically may be true, but critics were quick to point out many of the problems with this Harvest Box approach.

Then there are the retailers. Walmart and Target could lose billions with these proposed cuts to food stamp purchases, and it would certainly hurt the new USDA pilot program set to launch later this year that allows food stamp purchases to be made with retailers online.

And that doesn’t even touch on the logistics and expense of having the government oversee preparation and shipping of millions of boxes on time on a regular basis.

To be sure, the food stamp program in America needs to be updated and improved. And there are startups such as All_ebt out there trying to make it easier for SNAP participants to access more options for fresher, healthier food through online food deliveries.

“We are going backwards in terms of technology,” said All_ebt founder Eli Calderón Morin told me by phone. “Fundamentally, I don’t think we should try to police what people eat.” Morin believes the conversation should be changed from punishing people simply because they are poor to empowering people to make better financial and healthier choices—which isn’t going to happen if the government takes those choices and boxes them up.

All_ebt Enables Online Grocery Purchases for those on Food Stamps

The new Amazon Go here in Seattle generated a lot of buzz when it opened last month. And while the store is a miracle of technology, it’s yet another venue where people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, can’t shop.

It’s modern roadblocks like this that caused Eli Calderón Morin to co-found All_ebt, a Los Angeles-based startup that helps people on food stamps participate in the digital economy that so often leaves them behind. Approximately 43 million Americans receive SNAP assistance, with money delivered via an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card to facilitate payments. The problem is that currently, these EBT cards can only be used in select physical stores at the point of sale, and not online.

According to Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center:

  • 23.5 million people live in low-income areas more than one mile from a supermarket.
  • Low-income zip codes have 30 percent more convenience stores, which tend to lack healthy items, than middle-income zip codes.

The ability for SNAP participants to order groceries via delivery from places like Amazon Fresh or even Safeway online provides a new avenue for people to access healthier food.

All_ebt wants to become a payment platform for EBT transactions. The first step in this process has been the creation of a Facebook Messenger app. To use it, SNAP participants create an All_ebt account and upload a picture of their EBT card or WIC coupon. Once created, users are issued a virtual wallet that can be used to buy food online.

So, when a user needs $50 for groceries, All_ebt is authorized to charge that EBT card $50. All_ebt then provides $50 for use in the new virtual wallet. Morin is quick to point out that money is not being transferred, and purchases made via All_ebt must still adhere to the purchasing restrictions that come with any EBT purchase (no alcohol, no tobacco,  etc.).

Morin wants everyone to have the same opportunity to eat healthier food. To help people even more, All_ebt has set up a pop-up location in East LA, complete with a mini supermarket to sign people up and show them how to use the service. Morin wouldn’t give specific numbers, but says that they sign up 5–10 people a day.

Providing access to online transactions for lower income households has also caught the attention of the government, which announced a SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot last year. Retailers such as Amazon, Safeway and Wal-Mart are participants in the program. The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service expects the pilot to launch in 2018.

All_ebt was part of the Visa developer program and was a finalist in the Visa Platform Challenge. The company is bootstrapped, with seven people working there, and has begun the search for investors. While All_ebt is currently refining its business model, Morin says they want to become like Braintree and Stripe for EBT transactions, and want to have merchants pay the transaction fee.

Like so many things these days, the very idea of food stamps has become highly politicized. Regardless of your party affiliation, All_ebt’s mission to make healthy food more available to everyone is a good one and a goal worth supporting.