Economic supports, cash, food: News, initiatives, reports, work groups

Get updates on work in progress by committees, work groups and teams, activity reports, data and interpretation, and performance dashboards.

Initiatives

Nutritious Food Coalition
The coalition meets to address food access issues, increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, identify barriers and areas for expansion in nutrition assistance and support, and develop coordinated outreach efforts to ensure all Minnesotans who are eligible for assistance have an opportunity
to apply for it.

Coalition goals include:
- Identify barriers and means of increasing food access
- Provide guidance on ways to better serve Minnesotans in need of healthy food, particularly seniors
- Raise awareness about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- Educate people on eating nutritiously and cost effectively
- Increase participation in the nutrition assistance programs.
The coalition measures its success by an increase in participation among program-eligible Minnesotans.

Statewide outreach efforts include:
- Work from more than 30 agencies, which are Food and Nutrition Service grant recipients and are part of Minnesota's formal state outreach plan
- Recruitment of local partners to conduct outreach
- Coordination among the department and counties and tribes to provide the infrastructure for material updates, supplies, training and communications
- Free nutrition education materials and classes (SNAP-Ed) through the University of Minnesota Extension and seven of the tribal nations in Minnesota -- Bois Forte, Grand Portage Chippewas, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Fond du Lac, Minne Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Red Lake Nation and White Earth Nation -- to help participants make good purchasing choices and stretch their food dollars.

Economic assistance program reports

Welfare Research Briefs
These are one-page summaries on economic assistance in Minnesota.
Monthly data on cases, persons and payments
The Minnesota Family Investment Program Monthly Reports include summary data for the Diversionary Work Program, Minnesota Family Investment Program and child-only public assistance.
Trends in the Minnesota Family Investment Program
Monthly activity by county and tribe
This provides details about monthly activity in the Minnesota Family Investment Program and the Diversionary Work Program, by county and tribe.
Minnesota Family Investment Program management indicators
These indicators are quarterly data on state-mandated performance measures, by county, tribal providers and county consortia.
These are annual summaries on state-mandated performance measures for the Self-Support Index and the Work Participation Rate by county, tribal providers and county consortia.
Quarterly data on Self-Support Index and Work Participation Rate by racial and ethnic groups within counties, tribal providers and county consortia regions.