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

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.