State officials brief committee on SNAP caseload, work rules and outreach programs

At a meeting of the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry Committee, Miranda Gray, deputy commissioner for the Economic Services Division, and Leslie Wisdom, director of the Food and Nutrition Team, gave an overview of 3 Squares Vermont (the state name for SNAP), eligibility rules, program innovations and related nutrition programs.

The presentation emphasized program scale and financial flow. "It is a federal program. The benefits are 100% federally funded, and then states and the federal government share fiftyfifty in the cost to administer the program," Gray said. Vermont currently has 39,288 households enrolled — 65,525 individuals, or just over 10% of the state's population — receiving almost $13,000,000 in benefits each month.

Why it matters: SNAP is the state's largest food assistance program and a primary conduit of federal food dollars into local grocery stores, farmers markets and farm stands. Committee members asked questions about benefit amounts, eligibility, administrative performance and recent federal changes that affect exemptions.

Officials summarized key program rules and measures. Eligibility generally uses a gross-income ceiling at 185% of the federal poverty level and a net-income test; example thresholds presented included roughly $2,322 per month for a single adult at 185% and about $4,810 per month for a family of four. Benefit levels follow the federal…