The Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Impact on Wisconsin and Policy

Recommendations

To: Public Health Madison and Dane County

From: Marah Zinnen, B.S., Dietetic Intern
RE: Coronavirus Emergency Aid for Food and Nutrition Services
Date: 04/15/2020

The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a pandemic on
March 11, 2020, signaling the declaration of a public health emergency by Governor Evers on March
12th, 2020 and a national emergency by President Trump on March 13 th, 2020. On March 25th, 2020,
the Safer at Home Order from Governor Evers and Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Secretary-designee Andrea Palm went into effect. 1

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which was signed into law on March 18 th, 2020,
addresses paid sick leave, insurance coverage of coronavirus testing, nutrition assistance, and
unemployment benefits.2 Division A of the act allocates extra funds, equaling a total of $1,000,000,
to the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). 2
This policy memo will focus on division B of the Act, which details the waivers available to states to
expand and ease restrictions of WIC, school nutrition programs, and SNAP, as well as detail
implications for Wisconsin food policy and policy recommendations.

Division B: Nutrition Waivers

I. Maintaining Essential Access to Lunch for Students (MEALS) Act and COVID-19 Nutrition
Response Act2
These acts apply to the following qualified programs: the NSLP, the NSBP, the CACFP, and the
SFSP. The purpose is to allow the Secretary of Agriculture to grant waivers to states and eligible
providers for the following circumstances:
School Nutrition Programs
a. To provide meals and meal supplements through the qualified programs during
school closures related to COVID-19. Approved in WI on 3/25/20.
b. To serve meals and meal supplements outside the school/care setting through
qualified programs with appropriate safety measures. Approved in WI on 3/12/20.
c. To serve food that does not comply with program standards if it is necessary due to
COVID-19 related supply chain disruptions. Approved in WI on 3/25/20.
WIC
d. Waive the physical presence requirement during recertification. Approved in WI on
3/20/20.
e. Waive anthropometric and bloodwork requirements to determine nutritional risk.
Approved in WI on 3/20/20.
f. Waive administrative requirements that cannot be met due to COVID-19. Approved
in WI on 3/30/20.

II. SNAP (Wisconsin FoodShare) Waivers3

The following provisions were granted for the duration of the COVID-19 public health
emergency:
1. Increase SNAP benefits to meet rising needs in two ways. Approved in WI on 4/2/20.

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 a. Emergency allotment: At the request of a state agency, provides emergency
allotments to SNAP households to address temporary food needs for up to two
months. This amount cannot exceed the maximum monthly allotment for the
household size.
b. Pandemic EBT (P-EBT): At the request of a state agency, allows meal
replacement benefits provided through SNAP for children who would otherwise
receive free or reduced-price meals at a school that is closed due to COVID-19.
2. Extend certification periods and adjust reporting requirements. Approved in WI on
3/20/20.
a. Allows states to waive or extend deadlines of the monthly interviews and
paperwork that are typically required for SNAP participants to continue receiving
benefits. This waiver is meant to lift administrative burden and preserve existing
benefits.
3. Adapt telephonic signature requirements. Not adopted in WI.
a. Typically, SNAP applications done over-the-phone have required that
participants record verbal assent to program information provided by a state
employee, which was stored as an audio file.
b. The waiver allows states to obtain household attestation on the client’s behalf in
lieu of a recorded signature. The intent of this is to assist states where offices are
closed and where there are clients without internet access for online application
submission.
4. Modify quality control processes by shifting case reviews from in-person to virtual and
extending deadlines to process case reviews. Approved in WI on 3/13/20.
a. Allows states to conduct phone interviews to confirm eligibility and benefit levels
of clients (done on a monthly basis) to allow for the practice of social distancing.
5. Waive other requirements, such as the application interview. Not adopted in WI.
a. Allows initial interview and recertification interviews to be waived in order to
quickly process new applicants and preserve the benefits of existing participants.
b. The intent of waiving these application requirements was to help state
administration process the influx of new applicants as the economic downturn of
COVID-19 worsens.

Implications for Wisconsin Residents

As detailed above, Wisconsin has taken critical steps in protecting food security during the COVID-
19 crisis by adopting many of the nutrition waivers made available in the Families First Coronavirus
Response Act. Joining the record 10 million Americans who applied for Unemployment Insurance
over the second and third weeks of March, 270,000 Wisconsinites have applied for unemployment in
the wake of the mandated closure of non-essential businesses, and the number is likely to grow. 4,5 As
a result, Wisconsin FoodShare, which served 604,000 individuals in February in Wisconsin, and
Wisconsin WIC, which served 149,489 individuals in Wisconsin in 2018, are likely to see record
numbers of new applicants in need of food assistance. 6,7 Additionally, the NSLP in Wisconsin served
an average of 471,307 meals daily in the 2017-2018 school year, with over half (52.3%) of those
meals given for free as a result of income eligibility of students and/or school districts. 8 With the
statewide closure of schools, thousands of children who rely on school meals were at risk of losing
access to important nutrition.

Easing application and recertification requirements provides the flexibility necessary to continue
these essential services while maintaining the safety of operators and participants. Suspending in-

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person requirements for these programs allows children and families to practice safe social distancing
and honor the Safer at Home order.

Opportunities for Wisconsin State Legislature

I. Adoption of Additional SNAP Waivers
The state of Wisconsin has thus far not applied for the following SNAP waivers: the waiver of
telephonic signature requirements, and the waiver of the application interview. As of April 6, 2020,
13 states have adopted the telephonic signature waiver and 29 states have adopted the application
interview waiver.3 Both of these waivers, which are meant to streamline the application process to
accommodate an influx of new applicants, should be adopted by Wisconsin State Legislature if the
new applicants to FoodShare overwhelm state FoodShare administrative capacity resulting in delay
of benefits to participants.

II. Request for SNAP Online Purchasing or other Purchasing Flexibility

The CDC recommends that older individuals and those with underlying health conditions “stay home
and away from other people” due to their increased risk of having a severe COVID-19 illness. 9 As a
result, many Americans have opted for home delivery of groceries in order to practice social
distancing and avoid exposure, and online ordering sales are far outpacing the year-to-date growth
projected for online grocery delivery. 10

In April 2019, the USDA launched a SNAP online purchasing pilot to test the safety and security of
allowing SNAP participants to purchase groceries online through vetted vendors with electronic
benefit transfer (EBT). The pilot originally included Washington, Oregon, Nebraska, Iowa, Alabama,
and New York.11 Two states, Alabama and Nebraska, moved up their start dates for the online
purchasing pilot due to concerns over how stay-at-home recommendations for high risk groups
would affect SNAP participants’ ability to purchase food. 12 As recently as April 17, 2020, several
other states have joined the pilot: California, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, North Carolina, and
Washington, D.C. The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) asserts that it “will continue to
work with interested states in advancing their participation in this pilot.”11 As of February 2020,
35,286 Wisconsin FoodShare participants (5.8%) are age 65 or older, putting them in the high risk
category.6 The ability to use EBT for online grocery shopping is critically needed to help preserve the
health of these vulnerable Wisconsin residents.

In the event that joining the online purchasing pilot is not feasible for Wisconsin, efforts should be
made to work with SNAP vendors to increase purchasing flexibility. In response to his state’s lack of
online purchasing options for SNAP participants, Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey wrote a letter
to the Secretary of Agriculture urging the USDA to “notify retailers of the flexibilities that do
currently exist to make grocery delivery possible for all SNAP recipients who need it.” 13 Senator
Casey asserts that retailers who accept SNAP benefits should make online ordering and delivery
available to SNAP users through options such as swiping the EBT card upon delivery to the home,
also known as Pay at Pick-Up or Click and Collect. 11 This would bypass the need for using an online
portal to process payment.

To continue advocating for the health of Wisconsin during this crisis, PHMDC should request to join
the USDA FNS online purchasing pilot and echo the voice of Senator Casey by encouraging the
Secretary of Agriculture to work with SNAP retailers to address the needs of SNAP participants. It is
critical to recognize that the coronavirus pandemic will disproportionately impact low-income
individuals if government agencies fall short of addressing these political determinants of health.

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References:
1. Coronavirus (COVID-19). Retrieved March 26, 2020 from Public Health Madison &
Dane County website, https://publichealthmdc.com/coronavirus
2. The families first coronavirus response act: summary of key provisions. (March 23,
2020). Kaiser Family Foundation.
3. Most states are easing SNAP participation rules and providing added benefits. (April 6,
2020). Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
4. Long, H. Over 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in March as
economy collapsed. (April 2, 2020). Washington Post.
5. Boulton, G. Some basics on applying for unemployment benefits- and why you should be
applying right now. (April 1, 2020). Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
6. FoodShare at a glance- February 2020. (n.d.). Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Retrieved April 8, 2020 from
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/foodshare/ataglance202002.pdf
7. Wisconsin WIC statewide participation (2008-2018). (n.d.). Wisconsin Department of
Health Services. Retrieved April 8, 2020 from
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/wic/statewide-data-overview.pdf
8. School year 2017-2018 statistical summary. (August 2019). Wisconsin Department of
Public Instruction. Retrieved April 8, 2020 from https://dpi.wi.gov/school-
nutrition/program-statistics
9. People who are at higher risk for severe illness. (April 2, 2020). Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
10. Cheng, A. Blue Apron stock surges 70% as grocery and food deliveries spike amid
coronavirus crisis. (March 17, 2020). Forbes.
11. DC and North Carolina added to innovative SNAP online pilot program. (April 17,
2020). United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service.
12. Rosenbaum D, Bolen E, Neuburger Z, Dean S. USDA, states must act swiftly to deliver
food assistance allowed by families first act. (April 7, 2020). Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities.
13. Casey, R. (March 18, 2020). COVID grocery delivery SNAP letter. PDF.