§7517 The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program

Summary

Makes grants to government agencies and nonprofits to help low-income people buy more fresh fruits and vegetables and to run “produce prescription” projects with health providers that test whether eating more produce improves health, lowers food insecurity, and cuts health care use and costs. Definitions in one line each: Eligible entity: a government agency or nonprofit. Emergency feeding organization: as defined elsewhere in the law. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): the SNAP program and the programs under section 19 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. Healthcare partner: a hospital, a federally qualified health center, a VA hospital or clinic, or a healthcare provider group. Member: an individual who is eligible for SNAP or Medicaid or is in a low-income household with or at risk of a diet-related health condition. Grants must fund projects that give point-of-purchase incentives for fruits and vegetables to SNAP users, have the SNAP state agency’s support, and collect data (unless the project gets $100,000 or less in a year). Federal funding normally covers no more than 50% of project costs. Non‑Federal shares may be cash or in-kind, but for-profit groups cannot count employee salaries as their share; Tribal agencies may be allowed to use certain Federal funds to meet the non-Federal share. Priority is given to projects that put most money into direct incentives, use direct-to-consumer sales, work with local farmers, restrict incentives so they can only buy produce, serve underserved communities, coordinate with many partners, and offer extra services like online ordering or delivery. Makes grants for produce-prescription projects only to eligible entities that partner with one or more healthcare partners and that prescribe fresh fruits and vegetables to members. Applicants must explain how they will screen and verify members, run and evaluate the project, provide nutrition education, tell members where to redeem prescriptions, and document a partnership with State Medicaid or another evaluator. Creates one or more Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Centers to give training, collect standard data, help grantees share best practices, and publish annual reports to Congress starting in fiscal year 2020. The Secretary may make cooperative agreements with expert organizations to run the Centers. Funding rules and limits: $5,000,000 is authorized for each of fiscal years 2014 through 2023. From the Commodity Credit Corporation the Secretary must use: $35,000,000 for fiscal years 2014 and 2015; $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2016 and 2017; $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2018; $45,000,000 for fiscal year 2019; $48,000,000 for fiscal year 2020; $48,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; $53,000,000 for fiscal year 2022; and $56,000,000 for fiscal year 2023 and each fiscal year thereafter. For fiscal years 2019 through 2023, no more than 10% of funds each year may go to the produce prescription program, no more than 8% each year may be used by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Food and Nutrition Service for administration, and the Centers may get not more than $17,000,000 total for fiscal years 2019 and 2020 and $7,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2023. Program rules: benefits given under these grants are treated as supplemental nutrition benefits. States must ensure no State or local tax is collected on purchases made with these benefits. Grants may not be used to limit SNAP or other Federal nutrition benefits. Help given under these grants to SNAP households is not part of the household’s SNAP allotment and cannot be used in SNAP claim collections.