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 quarterly 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 20 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 Minnesota Chippewa Tribe 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.
This is a supplemental report on Diversionary Work Program.

Diversionary Work Program Fifth and 12th Month Outcomes- Data for DWP cohorts from June 2012 through June 2014 DHS-4563A (PDF)
Annual demographic, family composition and program participant characteristics data
These are Minnesota Family Investment Program and Diversionary Work Program: Characteristics of Cases and Eligible Adults.
This is a summary report on the first decade of the Minnesota Family Investment Program, based on December reports for 1997 to 2006:
- Minnesota's Family Cash Assistance Caseload: A Ten-Year Retrospective DHS-4219I(PDF)
At the Limit: Minnesota Family Investment Program Participants reaching the 60-month limit
This is annual data and analysis of cases involving people who have reached the 60-month lifetime limit for receiving cash assistance:
Evaluation Notes series
These are reports on important measurement, evaluation, and research topics.
Research reports on ways to improve the Minnesota Family Investment Program
Minnesota Family Investment Program longitudinal study reports
The Minnesota Department of Human Services conducted a five-year study following nearly 2,000 early Minnesota Family Investment Program participants.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

These reports provide monthly activity in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by county and tribe.

Other program information

Family Self-Sufficiency and Health Care Program Statistics on Cases, Persons and Expenditures gives statewide data for a series of 10 annual and 13 monthly periods for cash, food and medical programs. The report is based on the month the payment was received. Contact DHS.ReportsAndForecasts@state.mn.us for more information.